Network link establishment for SaaS applications in multi-cloud infrastructure

Abstract

Techniques are described for creating a network link between a virtual network in a cloud environment and a service endpoint associated with a service provided by another cloud environment. The network link is created based on network resources and one or more link-enabled virtual networks deployed in the first cloud environment and the second cloud environment.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application is a non-provisional application of and claims the benefit of each of the following provisional applications, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes:

[0003] (1) U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 416,042, filed on October 14, 2022;

[0004] (2) U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 464,903, filed on May 8, 2023;

[0005] (3) U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 467,241, filed on May 17, 2023;

[0006] (4) U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 468,739, filed on May 24, 2023;

[0007] (5) U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 469,763, filed on May 30, 2023;

[0008] (6) U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 471,573, filed on June 7, 2023; Technical Field

[0009] The present disclosure relates to cloud architecture, and more particularly to a technology for linking two cloud environments provided by different cloud service providers. Users of a cloud environment provided by one service provider can use and manage services provided by another cloud environment provided by another cloud service provider. Background Art

[0010] The adoption rate of cloud services has increased dramatically over the past few years, and this trend will only increase. Various different cloud environments are provided by different cloud service providers (CSPs), and each cloud environment provides a set of one or more cloud services. The set of cloud services provided by the cloud environment may include one or more different types of services, including but not limited to software as a service (SaaS) services, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) services, platform as a service (PaaS) services, etc.

[0011] Although there are currently a variety of different cloud environments available, each cloud environment provides a closed ecosystem for its subscribing customers. Therefore, customers of a cloud environment are limited to using the services provided by that cloud environment. For customers who subscribe to a cloud environment provided by one CSP, there is no easy way to use services provided in a different cloud environment provided by a different CSP via that cloud environment. The embodiments discussed herein address these and other issues. Summary of the invention

[0012] The present disclosure relates to cloud architectures, and more particularly to techniques for linking two cloud environments provided by different cloud service providers. Users of a cloud environment provided by one service provider can manage services provided by another cloud environment provided by another cloud service provider. Various embodiments are described herein, including methods, systems, non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing programs, codes, or instructions executable by one or more processors, etc. Some embodiments may be implemented using a computer program product that includes a computer program / instructions that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform any of the methods described in the present disclosure.

[0013] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a multi-cloud control plane (MCCP) framework that provides the ability to deliver services of a specific cloud network (e.g., Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)) to users on other clouds (e.g., AWS). The MCCP framework allows users (of (one or more) other cloud environments) to access services of the cloud environment (e.g., PaaS services, database services such as autonomous database services, etc.) while providing a user experience that is as close as possible to the user's native cloud environment (one or more). The key value proposition of MCCP is that customers will be able to experience the full data plane capabilities of services in external clouds.

[0014] In order for a cloud service provider (e.g., OCI) to provide high throughput and latency-sensitive services (e.g., Exa database service, autonomous database service) to customers of (one or more) other cloud environments (e.g., AWS), an efficient communication channel must be established between the two cloud environments. The present disclosure provides different placement strategies for network resources of such a communication channel (referred to herein as a network link) that implements the interconnection of the two cloud environments.

[0015] One embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a method, comprising: receiving, by a multi-cloud infrastructure included in a first cloud environment, a request to create a network link between a second virtual network in a second cloud environment and a service endpoint corresponding to a service provided by the first cloud environment; and configuring, by the multi-cloud infrastructure, the network link between the second virtual network and the service endpoint, the configuration comprising: deploying a network load balancer associated with the service in the second cloud environment; instantiating a packet processor in a link-enabling virtual network in the first cloud environment; forwarding, by the network load balancer, traffic associated with the service received from the second virtual network to the packet processor; and processing, by the packet processor, traffic received from the network load balancer to generate processed traffic, the processed traffic being forwarded by the packet processor to the service endpoint corresponding to the service in the first cloud environment.

[0016] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a computing device is provided, comprising: one or more processors; and a memory comprising instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the computing device to at least: receive, by a multi-cloud infrastructure included in a first cloud environment, a request to create a network link between a second virtual network in a second cloud environment and a service endpoint corresponding to a service provided by the first cloud environment; and configure, by the multi-cloud infrastructure, the network link between the second virtual network and the service endpoint, the configuration comprising: deploying a network load balancer associated with the service in the second cloud environment; instantiating a packet processor in a link-enabled virtual network in the first cloud environment; forwarding, by the network load balancer, traffic associated with the service received from the second virtual network to the packet processor; and processing, by the packet processor, traffic received from the network load balancer to generate processed traffic, which is forwarded by the packet processor to the service endpoint corresponding to the service in the first cloud environment.

[0017] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides one or more computer-readable non-transitory media storing computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by one or more processors, cause: a multi-cloud infrastructure included in a first cloud environment to receive a request to create a network link between a second virtual network in a second cloud environment and a service endpoint corresponding to a service provided by the first cloud environment; and the multi-cloud infrastructure to configure the network link between the second virtual network and the service endpoint, the configuration comprising: deploying a network load balancer associated with the service in the second cloud environment; instantiating a packet processor in a link-enabled virtual network in the first cloud environment; forwarding, by the network load balancer, traffic associated with the service received from the second virtual network to the packet processor; and processing, by the packet processor, traffic received from the network load balancer to generate processed traffic, which is forwarded by the packet processor to the service endpoint corresponding to the service in the first cloud environment.

[0018] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a computer program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising instructions configured to cause one or more data processors to perform part or all of one or more methods disclosed herein.

[0019] The foregoing and other features and embodiments will become more apparent when referring to the following description, claims and accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] The features, embodiments, and advantages of the present disclosure may be better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0021] Figure 1is a high-level diagram of a distributed environment illustrating a virtual or overlay cloud network hosted by a cloud service provider infrastructure, according to certain embodiments.

[0022] Figure 2 Depicted is a simplified architectural diagram of physical components in a physical network within a CSPI in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0023] Figure 3 An example arrangement within a CSPI is shown in accordance with certain embodiments, where a host machine is connected to multiple network virtualization devices (NVDs).

[0024] Figure 4 Depicted is connectivity between a host machine and an NVD for providing I / O virtualization to support multi-tenancy in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0025] Figure 5 Depicted is a simplified block diagram of a physical network provided by CSPI in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0026] Figure 6 Depicted is a simplified high-level diagram of a distributed environment according to certain embodiments, the distributed environment including multiple cloud environments provided by different cloud service providers (CSPs), wherein the cloud environments include a specific cloud environment that provides a specialized infrastructure that enables one or more cloud services provided by the specific cloud environment to be used by customers of other cloud environments.

[0027] Figure 7 Depicted is an exemplary high-level architecture of a multi-cloud infrastructure that interconnects two different cloud environments in accordance with some embodiments.

[0028] Fig. 8A Depicted is a detailed architecture of a network link according to certain embodiments.

[0029] Figure 8B An exemplary flow chart illustrating a process of establishing a network link in accordance with certain embodiments is depicted.

[0030] Fig. 9A An architecture for establishing a network link to provision services via a private endpoint is depicted in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0031] Fig. 9B An exemplary flow diagram illustrating a process of establishing a network link to access a service via a private endpoint in accordance with certain embodiments is depicted.

[0032] Fig.10 Depicted is an exemplary architecture for performing Domain Name System (DNS) resolution in accordance with some embodiments.

[0033] Fig.11Depicted is a schematic diagram illustrating deployment of resources by a multi-cloud infrastructure in accordance with some embodiments.

[0034] Fig.12 is a block diagram illustrating one mode for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0035] Fig.13 is a block diagram illustrating another mode for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0036] Fig.14 is a block diagram illustrating another mode for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0037] Fig.15 is a block diagram illustrating another mode for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0038] Fig.16 is a block diagram illustrating an example computer system in accordance with at least one embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0039] In the following description, for the purpose of explanation, specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of certain embodiments. However, it is apparent that various embodiments can be practiced without these specific details. The drawings and descriptions are not intended to be limiting. The word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or superior to other embodiments or designs.

[0040] The present disclosure relates generally to an improved cloud architecture, and more particularly to techniques for linking two cloud environments, each provided by a different cloud service provider (CSP), so that users of one cloud environment can use services provided by another different cloud environment. Various embodiments are described herein, including methods, systems, non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing programs, codes, or instructions executable by one or more processors, etc. Some embodiments may be implemented using a computer program product that includes a computer program / instructions that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform any of the methods described in the present disclosure.

[0041] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a multi-cloud control plane (MCCP) framework that provides the ability to deliver services of a specific cloud network (e.g., Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)) to users on other clouds (e.g., in Amazons AWS). The MCCP framework allows users (of (one or more) other cloud environments) to access services of the cloud environment (e.g., PaaS services) while providing a user experience as close as possible to the user's native cloud environment (one or more). The key value proposition of MCCP is that customers will be able to experience the full data plane capabilities of services in external clouds.

[0042] MCCP enables users of the second cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS users) to utilize resources (e.g., database resources) provided by the first cloud infrastructure (e.g., OCI) in a way that is transparent to the users. Specifically, services provided by the first cloud infrastructure are displayed as "native" services in the second cloud infrastructure. This allows customers of the second cloud infrastructure to natively access services provided by the first cloud infrastructure. As will be described below with reference to Figure 6-11 As described, the MCCP is a collection of microservices executed in a first cloud infrastructure that exposes resources of the first cloud infrastructure for use by external cloud users (e.g., users of a second cloud infrastructure). Each microservice acts as a proxy that provides communication with resources provided by the first cloud infrastructure.

[0043] Cloud Network Example

[0044] The term cloud service is generally used to refer to services provided on-demand (e.g., via a subscription model) by a cloud service provider (CSP) to users or customers using systems and infrastructure (cloud infrastructure) provided by the CSP. Typically, the servers and systems that make up the CSP's infrastructure are separate from the customer's own on-premises servers and systems. Therefore, customers can take advantage of cloud services provided by a CSP without having to purchase separate hardware and software resources for the service. Cloud services are designed to provide subscribing customers with simple, scalable access to applications and computing resources without requiring customers to invest in the infrastructure used to provide the service.

[0045] There are several cloud service providers that offer various types of cloud services. There are various different types or models of cloud services including Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), etc.

[0046] A customer can subscribe to one or more cloud services provided by a CSP. A customer can be any entity, such as an individual, an organization, a business, etc. When a customer subscribes to or registers for a service provided by a CSP, a lease or account is created for the customer. The customer can then access the subscribed one or more cloud resources associated with the account via this account.

[0047] As mentioned above, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a specific type of cloud computing service. In the IaaS model, the CSP provides infrastructure (called Cloud Service Provider Infrastructure or CSPI) that can be used by customers to build their own customizable networks and deploy customer resources. Therefore, the customer's resources and network are hosted in a distributed environment by the infrastructure provided by the CSP. This is different from traditional computing, in which the customer's resources and network are hosted by the infrastructure provided by the customer.

[0048] CSPI may include interconnected high-performance computing resources, including various host machines, memory resources, and network resources, forming a physical network, which is also referred to as a base network or underlying network. The resources in CSPI may be spread over one or more data centers, which may be geographically spread over one or more geographic regions. Virtualization software may be executed by these physical resources to provide a virtualized distributed environment. Virtualization creates an overlay network (also referred to as a software-based network, a software-defined network, or a virtual network) on a physical network. The CSPI physical network provides an underlying foundation for creating one or more overlay or virtual networks on top of a physical network. A physical network (or base network or underlying network) includes physical network devices, such as physical switches, routers, computers, and host machines. An overlay network is a logical (or virtual) network running on top of a physical base network. A given physical network may support one or more overlay networks. Overlay networks typically use encapsulation technology to distinguish traffic belonging to different overlay networks. A virtual or overlay network is also referred to as a virtual cloud network (VCN). A virtual network is implemented using software virtualization technology (e.g., a hypervisor, virtualization functions implemented by a network virtualization device (NVD) (e.g., smartNIC), a top-of-rack (TOR) switch, an intelligent TOR that implements one or more functions performed by the NVD, and other mechanisms) to create a layer of network abstraction that can run on top of a physical network. A virtual network can take many forms, including peer-to-peer networks, IP networks, and the like. A virtual network is typically either a layer 3 IP network or a layer 2 VLAN. This approach to virtual or overlay networking is often referred to as virtual or overlay layer 3 networking. Examples of protocols developed for virtual networks include IP-in-IP (or Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)) Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN—IETF RFC7348), Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) (e.g., MPLS Layer 3 Virtual Private Networks (RFC 4364)), VMware's NSX, GENEVE (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation), and the like.

[0049] For IaaS, the infrastructure (CSPI) provided by the CSP can be configured to provide virtualized computing resources over a public network (e.g., the Internet). In the IaaS model, cloud computing service providers can host infrastructure components (e.g., servers, storage devices, network nodes (e.g., hardware), deployment software, platform virtualization (e.g., hypervisor layer), etc.). In some cases, IaaS providers can also supply various services to accompany those infrastructure components (e.g., billing, monitoring, logging, security, load balancing, and clustering, etc.). Therefore, since these services can be policy-driven, IaaS users can implement policies to drive load balancing to maintain application availability and performance. CSPI provides infrastructure and a set of complementary cloud services that enable customers to build and run a wide range of applications and services in a highly available, hosted, distributed environment. CSPI provides high-performance computing resources and capabilities and storage capacity in a flexible virtual network that can be securely accessed from various networked locations (such as from the customer's on-premises network). When a customer subscribes to or signs up for an IaaS service provided by a CSP, the tenancy created for that customer is a secure and isolated partition within CSPI where the customer can create, organize, and manage their cloud resources.

[0050] Customers can build their own virtual networks using the computing, storage, and networking resources provided by CSPI. One or more customer resources or workloads, such as computing instances, can be deployed on these virtual networks. For example, customers can use the resources provided by CSPI to build one or more customizable and private virtual networks, called virtual cloud networks (VCNs). Customers can deploy one or more customer resources, such as computing instances, on customer VCNs. Computing instances can take the form of virtual machines, bare metal instances, and the like. Therefore, CSPI provides infrastructure and a set of complementary cloud services that enable customers to build and run a wide range of applications and services in a highly available virtual hosted environment. Customers do not manage or control the underlying physical resources provided by CSPI, but can control operating systems, storage devices, and deployed applications; and may have limited control over selected networking components (e.g., firewalls).

[0051] The CSP may provide a console that enables customers and network administrators to use CSPI resources to configure, access, and manage resources deployed in the cloud. In some embodiments, the console provides a web-based user interface that can be used to access and manage CSPI. In some implementations, the console is a web-based application provided by the CSP.

[0052] CSPI can support single-tenancy or multi-tenancy architecture. In a single-tenancy architecture, software (e.g., application, database) or hardware component (e.g., host machine or server) serves a single customer or tenant. In a multi-tenancy architecture, software or hardware component serves multiple customers or tenants. Therefore, in a multi-tenancy architecture, CSPI resources are shared among multiple customers or tenants. In the case of multi-tenancy, precautions are taken and protections are implemented in CSPI to ensure that each tenant's data is isolated and remains invisible to other tenants.

[0053] In a physical network, a network endpoint ("endpoint") refers to a computing device or system that is connected to a physical network and communicates back and forth with the network to which it is connected. A network endpoint in a physical network can be connected to a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or other types of physical networks. Examples of traditional endpoints in a physical network include modems, hubs, bridges, switches, routers and other networking devices, physical computers (or host machines), etc. Each physical device in a physical network has a fixed network address that can be used to communicate with the device. This fixed network address can be a layer 2 address (e.g., a MAC address), a fixed layer 3 address (e.g., an IP address), etc. In a virtualized environment or virtual network, endpoints can include various virtual endpoints, such as virtual machines hosted by components of the physical network (e.g., hosted by a physical host machine). These endpoints in a virtual network are addressed by overlay addresses, such as overlay layer 2 addresses (e.g., overlay MAC addresses) and overlay layer 3 addresses (e.g., overlay IP addresses). Network overlays achieve flexibility by allowing network administrators to move around overlay addresses associated with network endpoints using software management (e.g., via software that implements a control plane for a virtual network). Accordingly, unlike a physical network, in a virtual network, an overlay address (e.g., an overlay IP address) can be moved from one endpoint to another using network management software. Since the virtual network is built on top of the physical network, the communication between components in the virtual network involves both the virtual network and the underlying physical network. To facilitate such communication, the components of CSPI are configured to learn and store mappings that map overlay addresses in the virtual network to actual physical addresses in the base network, and vice versa. These mappings are then used to facilitate communication. Customer traffic is encapsulated to facilitate routing in the virtual network.

[0054] Accordingly, physical addresses (e.g., physical IP addresses) are associated with components in a physical network, and overlay addresses (e.g., overlay IP addresses) are associated with entities in a virtual or overlay network. A physical IP address is an IP address associated with a physical device (e.g., a network device) in a base or physical network. For example, each NVD has an associated physical IP address. An overlay IP address is an overlay address associated with an entity in an overlay network, such as an overlay address associated with a computing instance in a customer's virtual cloud network (VCN). Two different customers or tenants (each with its own private VCN) can potentially use the same overlay IP address in their VCNs without knowing about each other. Both physical IP addresses and overlay IP addresses are types of real IP addresses. These addresses are separate from virtual IP addresses. A virtual IP address is typically a single IP address that represents or maps to multiple real IP addresses. A virtual IP address provides a one-to-many mapping between a virtual IP address and multiple real IP addresses. For example, a load balancer can use a VIP to map or represent multiple servers, each with its own real IP address.

[0055] The cloud infrastructure or CSPI is physically hosted in one or more data centers in one or more regions of the world. The CSPI may include components in a physical or base network and virtualized components (e.g., virtual networks, computing instances, virtual machines, etc.) located in a virtual network built on top of the physical network components. In some embodiments, the CSPI is organized and hosted in domains, regions, and availability domains. A region is typically a local geographic area that contains one or more data centers. Regions are generally independent of each other and can be far apart, for example, across countries or even continents. For example, a first region may be in Australia, another in Japan, another in India, and so on. CSPI resources are divided between regions so that each region has its own independent subset of CSPI resources. Each region can provide a set of core infrastructure services and resources, such as computing resources (e.g., bare metal servers, virtual machines, containers and related infrastructure, etc.); storage resources (e.g., block volume storage devices, file storage devices, object storage devices, archive storage devices); networking resources (e.g., virtual cloud networks (VCNs), load balancing resources, connections to on-premises networks), database resources; edge networking resources (e.g., DNS); and access management and monitoring resources, etc. Each region generally has multiple paths connecting it to other regions in the domain.

[0056] Generally speaking, an application is deployed in the region where it is most frequently used (i.e., on the infrastructure associated with that region) because it is faster to use nearby resources than to use distant resources. Applications may also be deployed in different regions for various reasons, such as redundancy to mitigate the risk of region-wide events (such as large weather systems or earthquakes), to meet different requirements of legal jurisdictions, tax domains, and other business or social standards, etc.

[0057] Data centers within a region can be further organized and subdivided into availability domains (ADs). An availability domain can correspond to one or more data centers located within a region. A region can consist of one or more availability domains. In this distributed environment, CSPI resources are either region-specific, such as a virtual cloud network (VCN), or availability domain-specific, such as a compute instance.

[0058] ADs within a region are isolated from each other, fault-tolerant, and configured so that it is extremely unlikely that they will fail simultaneously. This is achieved by ADs not sharing key infrastructure resources (such as networking, physical cables, cable paths, cable entry points, etc.), making it unlikely that a failure at one AD within a region will affect the availability of other ADs within the same region. ADs within the same region can be connected to each other through a low-latency, high-bandwidth network, which makes it possible to provide high-availability connections to other networks (e.g., the Internet, a customer's on-premises network, etc.) and to build replication systems in multiple ADs for high availability and disaster recovery. Cloud services use multiple ADs to ensure high availability and prevent resource failures. As the infrastructure provided by the IaaS provider grows, more regions and ADs can be added, as well as additional capacity. Traffic between availability domains is typically encrypted.

[0059] In some embodiments, regions are grouped into domains. A domain is a logical collection of regions. Domains are isolated from each other and do not share any data. Regions in the same domain can communicate with each other, but regions in different domains cannot. A customer's lease or account with a CSP exists within a single domain and can be spread across one or more regions that belong to that domain. Typically, when a customer subscribes to an IaaS service, a lease or account is created for that customer in a customer-specified region within a domain (called the "home" region). A customer can extend the customer's lease to one or more additional regions within a domain. A customer cannot access regions that are not in the domain where the customer's lease is located.

[0060] An IaaS provider may offer multiple domains, each catering to a specific set of customers or users. For example, a business domain may be provided for business customers. As another example, a domain may be provided for a specific country for customers within that country. As yet another example, a government domain may be provided for a government, etc. For example, a government domain may cater to a specific government and may have a higher level of security than a business domain. For example, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) currently offers a domain for a business region and two domains (e.g., FedRAMP-authorized and IL5-authorized) for a government cloud region.

[0061] In some embodiments, an AD may be subdivided into one or more fault domains. A fault domain is a grouping of infrastructure resources within an AD to provide anti-affinity. Fault domains allow for the distribution of compute instances so that they are not located on the same physical hardware within a single AD. This is called anti-affinity. A fault domain refers to a group of hardware components (computers, switches, etc.) that share a single point of failure. The compute pool is logically divided into fault domains. Therefore, a hardware failure or computing hardware maintenance event that affects one fault domain does not affect instances in other fault domains. Depending on the embodiment, the number of fault domains used for each AD may vary. For example, in some embodiments, each AD contains three fault domains. Fault domains act as logical data centers within an AD.

[0062] When a customer subscribes to an IaaS service, resources from CSPI are provisioned to the customer and associated with the customer's lease. Customers can use these provisioned resources to build private networks and deploy resources on these networks. Customer networks hosted by CSPI in the cloud are called virtual cloud networks (VCNs). Customers can use CSPI resources allocated to customers to set up one or more virtual cloud networks (VCNs). VCNs are virtual or software-defined private networks. Customer resources deployed in a customer's VCN may include computing instances (e.g., virtual machines, bare metal instances) and other resources. These computing instances may represent various customer workloads, such as applications, load balancers, databases, and the like. Computing instances deployed on VCNs can communicate with publicly accessible endpoints ("public endpoints"), with other instances in the same VCN or other VCNs (e.g., other VCNs of customers or VCNs that do not belong to the customer), with the customer's on-premises data center or network, and with service endpoints and other types of endpoints through public networks (such as the Internet).

[0063] CSPs can use CSPI to provide various services. In some cases, customers of CSPI can themselves act like service providers and use CSPI resources to provide services. Service providers can expose service endpoints, which are characterized by identification information (e.g., IP address, DNS name, and port). Customers' resources (e.g., computing instances) can use a particular service by accessing the service endpoints exposed by the service for that particular service. These service endpoints are generally endpoints that are publicly accessible to users via a public communication network (such as the Internet) using a public IP address associated with the endpoint. Publicly accessible network endpoints are sometimes also referred to as public endpoints.

[0064] In some embodiments, a service provider may expose a service via an endpoint for the service (sometimes referred to as a service endpoint). Customers of the service may then use this service endpoint to access the service. In some implementations, the service endpoint provided for a service may be accessed by multiple customers that intend to consume the service. In other implementations, a dedicated service endpoint may be provided to a customer so that only the customer can access the service using the dedicated service endpoint.

[0065] In certain embodiments, when a VCN is created, it is associated with a private overlay Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) address space, which is a range of private overlay IP addresses (e.g., 10.0 / 16) assigned to the VCN. The VCN includes associated subnets, routing tables, and gateways. The VCN resides within a single region but can span one or more or all of the availability domains in that region. A gateway is a virtual interface configured for the VCN and enables communication of traffic between the VCN and one or more endpoints external to the VCN. One or more different types of gateways can be configured for the VCN to enable communication to and from different types of endpoints.

[0066] A VCN can be subdivided into one or more subnetworks, such as one or more subnets. Thus, a subnet is a unit or subdivision of a configuration that can be created within a VCN. A VCN can have one or more subnets. Each subnet within a VCN is associated with a contiguous range of overlay IP addresses (e.g., 10.0.0.0 / 24 and 10.0.1.0 / 24) that do not overlap with other subnets in that VCN and represent a subset of the address space within the address space of the VCN.

[0067] Each computing instance is associated with a virtual network interface card (VNIC), which enables the computing instance to participate in the subnet of the VCN. VNIC is a logical representation of a physical network interface card (NIC). In general, a VNIC is an interface between an entity (e.g., a computing instance, a service) and a virtual network. VNICs exist in subnets, have one or more associated IP addresses, and associated security rules or policies. VNICs are equivalent to layer 2 ports on switches. VNICs are attached to subnets within computing instances and VCNs. The VNICs associated with computing instances make the computing instances part of the subnet of the VCN, and enable the computing instances to communicate (e.g., send and receive data packets) with endpoints located on the same subnet as the computing instance, with endpoints in different subnets in the VCN, or with endpoints outside the VCN. Therefore, the VNICs associated with computing instances determine how the computing instances are connected to endpoints inside and outside the VCN. When a computing instance is created and added to a subnet within the VCN, a VNIC for the computing instance is created and associated with the computing instance. For a subnet that includes a group of computing instances, the subnet includes VNICs corresponding to the group of computing instances, and each VNIC is attached to a computing instance within the group of computing instances.

[0068] A private overlay IP address is assigned to each computing instance via the VNIC associated with the computing instance. This private overlay network IP address is assigned to the VNIC associated with the computing instance when the computing instance is created and is used to route traffic to and from the computing instance. All VNICs in a given subnet use the same routing table, security list, and DHCP options. As described above, each subnet within a VCN is associated with a continuous range of overlay IP addresses (e.g., 10.0.0.0 / 24 and 10.0.1.0 / 24), which do not overlap with other subnets in the VCN and represent a subset of the address space within the address space of the VCN. For a VNIC on a particular subnet of the VCN, the private overlay IP address assigned to the VNIC is an address from the continuous range of overlay IP addresses allocated for the subnet.

[0069] In some embodiments, in addition to the private overlay IP address, the computing instance may optionally be assigned additional overlay IP addresses, such as, for example, one or more public IP addresses if in a public subnet. These multiple addresses are assigned either on the same VNIC or on multiple VNICs associated with the computing instance. However, each instance has a primary VNIC, which is created during instance startup and is associated with the overlay private IP address assigned to the instance—this primary VNIC cannot be deleted. Additional VNICs, called secondary VNICs, can be added to existing instances in the same availability domain as the primary VNIC. All VNICs are in the same availability domain as the instance. The secondary VNIC can be located in a subnet in the same VCN as the primary VNIC, or in a different subnet in the same VCN or in a different VCN.

[0070] If the compute instances are in a public subnet, they can optionally be assigned public IP addresses. When creating a subnet, you can specify the subnet as either a public subnet or a private subnet. A private subnet means that the resources (e.g., compute instances) and associated VNICs in the subnet cannot have public overlay IP addresses. A public subnet means that the resources and associated VNICs in the subnet can have public IP addresses. Customers can specify that a subnet exists in a single availability domain or across multiple availability domains in a region or domain.

[0071] As described above, a VCN can be subdivided into one or more subnets. In some embodiments, a virtual router (VR) configured for the VCN (referred to as a VCN VR or simply a VR) enables communication between subnets of the VCN. For a subnet within a VCN, the VR represents a logical gateway for that subnet, which enables the subnet (i.e., the computing instances on that subnet) to communicate with endpoints on other subnets within the VCN and other endpoints outside the VCN. A VCN VR is a logical entity that is configured to route traffic between VNICs in the VCN and a virtual gateway ("gateway") associated with the VCN. Figure 1The gateway is further described. The VCN VR is a layer 3 / IP layer concept. In one embodiment, there is one VCN VR for the VCN, where the VCN VR has a potentially unlimited number of ports addressed by IP addresses, one port for each subnet of the VCN. In this way, the VCN VR has a different IP address for each subnet in the VCN to which the VCN VR is attached. The VR is also connected to various gateways configured for the VCN. In some embodiments, a specific overlay IP address in the overlay IP address range for a subnet is reserved for the port of the VCN VR for that subnet. For example, consider that the VCN has two subnets, and the associated address ranges are 10.0 / 16 and 10.1 / 16, respectively. For the first subnet in the VCN with an address range of 10.0 / 16, the addresses in this range are reserved for the ports of the VCN VR for that subnet. In some cases, the first IP address in the range can be reserved for the VCN VR. For example, for a subnet with an overlay IP address range of 10.0 / 16, the IP address 10.0.0.1 can be reserved for the port of the VCN VR for that subnet. For a second subnet in the same VCN with an address range of 10.1 / 16, the VCN VR can have a port for the second subnet with an IP address of 10.1.0.1. The VCN VR has a different IP address for each subnet in the VCN.

[0072] In some other embodiments, each subnet within a VCN may have its own associated VR that may be addressed by the subnet using a reserved or default IP address associated with the VR. For example, the reserved or default IP address may be the first IP address in a range of IP addresses associated with the subnet. The VNICs in the subnet may communicate (e.g., send and receive packets) with the VRs associated with the subnet using this default or reserved IP address. In such embodiments, the VR is the entry / exit point for the subnet. A VR associated with a subnet within the VCN may communicate with other VRs associated with other subnets within the VCN. The VR may also communicate with a gateway associated with the VCN. The VR functions for the subnet run on or are performed by one or more NVDs that perform VNIC functions for the VNICs in the subnet.

[0073] Routing tables, security rules, and DHCP options can be configured for a VCN. A routing table is a virtual routing table for a VCN and includes rules for routing traffic from subnets within the VCN to destinations outside the VCN through gateways or specially configured instances. A VCN's routing table can be customized to control how packets are forwarded / routed to and from the VCN. DHCP options refer to configuration information that is automatically provided to an instance when it boots.

[0074] The security rules configured for a VCN represent the overlay firewall rules for the VCN. Security rules can include ingress and egress rules and specify the type of traffic (e.g., based on protocol and port) that is allowed in and out of the VCN instances. Customers can choose whether a given rule is stateful or stateless. For example, a customer can allow incoming SSH traffic from anywhere to a group of instances by setting up a stateful ingress rule with source CIDR 0.0.0.0 / 0 and destination TCP port 22. Security rules can be implemented using network security groups or security lists. A network security group consists of a set of security rules that apply only to the resources in that group. On the other hand, a security list includes rules that apply to all resources in any subnet that uses the security list. A default security list with default security rules can be provided for a VCN. The DHCP options configured for a VCN provide configuration information that is automatically provided to instances in the VCN when the instances are launched.

[0075] In some embodiments, configuration information for a VCN is determined and stored by a VCN control plane. For example, configuration information for a VCN may include information about address ranges associated with the VCN, subnets within the VCN and associated information, one or more VRs associated with the VCN, compute instances in the VCN and associated VNICs, NVDs that perform various virtualized network functions associated with the VCN (e.g., VNICs, VRs, gateways), state information for the VCN, and other VCN-related information. In some embodiments, a VCN distribution service publishes configuration information stored by a VCN control plane or a portion thereof to the NVD. The distributed information may be used to update information stored and used by the NVD (e.g., forwarding tables, routing tables, etc.) to forward packets to or from compute instances in the VCN.

[0076] In some embodiments, the creation of VCNs and subnets is handled by the VCN control plane (CP) and the launch of compute instances is handled by the compute control plane. The compute control plane is responsible for allocating physical resources to the compute instances and then calling the VCN control plane to create and attach VNICs to the compute instances. The VCN CP also sends VCN data maps to the VCN data plane, which is configured to perform packet forwarding and routing functions. In some embodiments, the VCN CP provides a distribution service that is responsible for providing updates to the VCN data plane. An example of a VCN control plane is also provided at Fig.12 , Fig.13 , Fig.14 and Fig.15 Depicted in (see reference numerals 1216, 1316, 1416, and 1516) and described below.

[0077] Customers can create one or more VCNs using resources hosted by CSPI. Compute instances deployed on customer VCNs can communicate with different endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints hosted by CSPI and endpoints external to CSPI.

[0078] Figure 1 , Figure 2 , Figure 3 , Figure 4 , Figure 5 and Figure 12-16 Various different architectures for implementing cloud-based services using CSPI are depicted in and are described below. Figure 1 is a high-level diagram of a distributed environment 100 showing an overlay or customer VCN hosted by CSPI according to certain embodiments. Figure 1 The distributed environment depicted in includes multiple components in an overlay network. Figure 1 The distributed environment 100 depicted in FIG. 1 is merely an example and is not intended to unduly limit the scope of the claimed embodiments. Many variations, substitutions, and modifications are possible. For example, in some embodiments, Figure 1 The distributed environment depicted in Figure 1 More or fewer systems or components than those shown in the drawings may be used, two or more systems may be combined, or there may be different system configurations or arrangements.

[0079] like Figure 1 As shown in the example depicted in , the distributed environment 100 includes a CSPI 101 that provides services and resources that customers can subscribe to and use to build their virtual cloud network (VCN). In some embodiments, CSPI 101 provides IaaS services to subscribing customers. Data centers within CSPI 101 can be organized into one or more regions. Figure 1 An example region "Region US" 102 is shown in FIG. A customer has configured a customer VCN c / o Oracle International Corporation for region 102. The customer can deploy various computing instances on VCN 104, where the computing instances can include virtual machines or bare metal instances. Examples of instances include applications, databases, load balancers, etc.

[0080] exist Figure 1 In the embodiment depicted in , customer VCN 104 includes two subnets, namely, "Subnet-1" and "Subnet-2", each with its own CIDR IP address range. Figure 1, the coverage IP address range of subnet-1 is 10.0 / 16, and the address range of subnet-2 is 10.1 / 16. VCN virtual router 105 represents a logical gateway for the VCN that enables communication between subnets of VCN 104 and with other endpoints outside the VCN. VCN VR 105 is configured to route traffic between VNICs in VCN 104 and gateways associated with VCN 104. VCN VR 105 provides ports for each subnet of VCN 104. For example, VR 105 can provide a port with IP address 10.0.0.1 for subnet-1 and a port with IP address 10.1.0.1 for subnet-2.

[0081] Multiple computing instances can be deployed on each subnet, where the computing instances can be virtual machine instances and / or bare metal instances. The computing instances in a subnet can be hosted by one or more host machines within CSPI 101. The computing instances participate in the subnet via the VNICs associated with the computing instances. For example, Figure 1 As shown in , compute instance C1 becomes part of subnet-1 via a VNIC associated with the compute instance. Similarly, compute instance C2 becomes part of subnet-1 via a VNIC associated with C2. In a similar manner, multiple compute instances (which may be virtual machine instances or bare metal instances) may be part of subnet-1. Each compute instance is assigned a private overlay IP address and MAC address via its associated VNIC. For example, in Figure 1 , the overlay IP address of compute instance C1 is 10.0.0.2 and the MAC address is M1, while the private overlay IP address of compute instance C2 is 10.0.0.3 and the MAC address is M2. Each compute instance in subnet-1 (including compute instances C1 and C2) has a default route to VCN VR 105 using IP address 10.0.0.1, which is the IP address of the port of VCN VR 105 for subnet-1.

[0082] Multiple computing instances can be deployed on subnet-2, including virtual machine instances and / or bare metal instances. Figure 1 As shown in , compute instances D1 and D2 become part of subnet-2 via the VNICs associated with the respective compute instances. Figure 1 In the embodiment shown in , the overlay IP address of computing instance D1 is 10.1.0.2 and the MAC address is MM1, while the private overlay IP address of computing instance D2 is 10.1.0.3 and the MAC address is MM2. Each computing instance in subnet-2 (including computing instances D1 and D2) has a default route to VCN VR 105 using IP address 10.1.0.1, which is the IP address of the port of VCN VR 105 for subnet-2.

[0083] VCN A 104 may also include one or more load balancers. For example, a load balancer may be provided for a subnet, and the load balancer may be configured to load balance traffic across multiple computing instances on the subnet. A load balancer may also be provided to load balance traffic across subnets in the VCN.

[0084] A specific computing instance deployed on VCN 104 can communicate with a variety of different endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints hosted by CSPI 200 and endpoints external to CSPI 200. Endpoints hosted by CSPI 101 can include: endpoints on the same subnet as a specific computing instance (e.g., communication between two computing instances in subnet-1); endpoints on different subnets but within the same VCN (e.g., communication between a computing instance in subnet-1 and a computing instance in subnet-2); endpoints in different VCNs in the same region (e.g., communication between a computing instance in subnet-1 and an endpoint in a VCN in the same region 106 or 110, communication between a computing instance in subnet-1 and an endpoint in a service point 110 in the same region); or endpoints in VCNs in different regions (e.g., communication between a computing instance in subnet-1 and an endpoint in a VCN in a different region 108). Computing instances in subnets hosted by CSPI 101 can also communicate with endpoints that are not hosted by CSPI 101 (i.e., external to CSPI 101). These external endpoints include endpoints in the customer's on-premises network 116, endpoints in other remote cloud-hosted networks 118, public endpoints 114 accessible via a public network (such as the Internet), and other endpoints.

[0085] The VNICs associated with the source and destination computing instances are used to facilitate communication between computing instances on the same subnet. For example, computing instance C1 in subnet-1 may want to send a packet to computing instance C2 in subnet-1. For a packet originating from a source computing instance and whose destination is another computing instance in the same subnet, the packet is first processed by the VNIC associated with the source computing instance. The processing performed by the VNIC associated with the source computing instance may include determining the destination information of the packet from the packet header, identifying any policies (e.g., security lists) configured for the VNIC associated with the source computing instance, determining the next hop for the packet, performing any packet encapsulation / decapsulation functions as needed, and then forwarding / routing the packet to the next hop, with the purpose of facilitating communication of the packet to its intended destination. When the destination computing instance is in the same subnet as the source computing instance, the VNIC associated with the source computing instance is configured to identify the VNIC associated with the destination computing instance and forward the packet to the VNIC for processing. The VNIC associated with the destination computing instance is then executed and the packet is forwarded to the destination computing instance.

[0086] For packets to be delivered from a compute instance in a subnet to an endpoint in a different subnet in the same VCN, communication is facilitated through the VNICs associated with the source and destination compute instances and the VCN VRs. Figure 1 Compute instance C1 in subnet-1 wants to send a packet to compute instance D1 in subnet-2, then the packet is first processed by the VNIC associated with compute instance C1. The VNIC associated with compute instance C1 is configured to route the packet to VCN VR 105 using the default route or port 10.0.0.1 of the VCN VR. VCN VR 105 is configured to route the packet to subnet-2 using port 10.1.0.1. The VNIC associated with D1 then receives and processes the packet and the VNIC forwards the packet to compute instance D1.

[0087] For packets to be transmitted from a compute instance in VCN 104 to an endpoint outside of VCN 104, communication is facilitated by a VNIC associated with the source compute instance, a VCN VR 105, and a gateway associated with VCN 104. One or more types of gateways may be associated with VCN 104. A gateway is an interface between a VCN and another endpoint, where the other endpoint is outside of the VCN. A gateway is a layer 3 / IP layer concept and enables a VCN to communicate with an endpoint outside of the VCN. Thus, a gateway facilitates the flow of traffic between a VCN and other VCNs or networks. A variety of different types of gateways may be configured for a VCN to facilitate different types of communications with different types of endpoints. Depending on the gateway, communications may be conducted over a public network (e.g., the Internet) or over a private network. Various communication protocols may be used for these communications.

[0088] For example, compute instance C1 may want to communicate with an endpoint outside of VCN 104. The packet may first be processed by a VNIC associated with source compute instance C1. VNIC processing determines that the destination of the packet is outside of C1's subnet-1. The VNIC associated with C1 may forward the packet to VCN VR 105 for VCN 104. VCN VR 105 then processes the packet and, as part of the processing, determines a specific gateway associated with VCN 104 as a next hop for the packet based on the packet's destination. VCN VR 105 may then forward the packet to the specific identified gateway. For example, if the destination is an endpoint within a customer's on-premises network, the packet may be forwarded by VCN VR 105 to a dynamic routing gateway (DRG) gateway 122 configured for VCN 104. The packet may then be forwarded from the gateway to the next hop to facilitate delivery of the packet to its final intended destination.

[0089] A variety of different types of gateways can be configured for a VCN. Examples of gateways that can be configured for a VCN are in Figure 1 An example of a gateway associated with a VCN is also shown in FIG. Fig.12 , Fig.13 , Fig.14 and Fig.15 1234, 1236, 1238, 1334, 1336, 1338, 1434, 1436, 1438, 1534, 1536, and 1538) and are described below. Figure 1As shown in the embodiment depicted in , a dynamic routing gateway (DRG) 122 can be added to or associated with a customer VCN 104 and provide a path for private network traffic communication between the customer VCN 104 and another endpoint, where the other endpoint can be a customer's on-premises network 116, a VCN 108 in a different region of CSPI 101, or another remote cloud network 118 not hosted by CSPI 101. The customer's on-premises network 116 can be a customer network or a customer data center built using the customer's resources. Access to the customer's on-premises network 116 is generally very limited. For customers who have both a customer's on-premises network 116 and one or more VCNs 104 deployed or hosted in the cloud by CSPI 101, the customer may want their on-premises network 116 and their cloud-based VCN 104 to be able to communicate with each other. This enables customers to build an extended hybrid environment that includes the customer's VCN 104 hosted by CSPI 101 and their on-premises network 116. DRG 122 enables this communication. To enable such communications, a communication channel 124 is set up, where one endpoint of the channel is located in the customer's on-premises network 116 and the other endpoint is located in the CSPI 101 and connected to the customer VCN 104. The communication channel 124 can pass through a public communication network (such as the Internet) or a private communication network. A variety of different communication protocols can be used, such as IPsec VPN technology over a public communication network (such as the Internet), Oracle's FastConnect technology that uses a private network instead of a public network, etc. The equipment or equipment that forms one endpoint of the communication channel 124 in the customer's on-premises network 116 is called customer premises equipment (CPE), such as Figure 1 On the CSPI 101 side, the endpoint may be a host machine executing DRG 122.

[0090] In some embodiments, a remote peer connection (RPC) can be added to the DRG, which allows a customer to peer one VCN with another VCN in a different region. Using such an RPC, a customer VCN 104 can connect with a VCN 108 in another region using a DRG 122. The DRG 122 can also be used to communicate with other remote cloud networks 118 that are not hosted by the CSPI 101, such as the Microsoft Azure cloud, the Amazon AWS cloud, etc.

[0091] like Figure 1As shown in , an Internet Gateway (IGW) 120 can be configured for a customer VCN 104, which enables computing instances on the VCN 104 to communicate with public endpoints 114 accessible via a public network, such as the Internet. The IGW 120 is a gateway that connects the VCN to a public network, such as the Internet. The IGW 120 enables public subnets within a VCN, such as VCN 104, where resources in the public subnet have public overlay IP addresses, to directly access public endpoints 112 on a public network 114, such as the Internet. Using the IGW 120, a connection can be initiated from a subnet within the VCN 104 or from the Internet.

[0092] A network address translation (NAT) gateway 128 may be configured for a customer's VCN 104 and enables cloud resources in the customer's VCN that do not have dedicated public overlay IP addresses to access the Internet, and do so without exposing those resources to direct incoming Internet connections (e.g., L4-L7 connections). This enables private subnets within a VCN (such as Private Subnet-1 in VCN 104) to privately access public endpoints on the Internet. In a NAT gateway, connections can only be initiated from a private subnet to the public Internet, and connections cannot be initiated from the Internet to a private subnet.

[0093] In some embodiments, a service gateway (SGW) 126 may be configured for a customer VCN 104 and provide a path for private network traffic between the VCN 104 and service endpoints supported in the service network 110. In some embodiments, the service network 110 may be provided by a CSP and may provide a variety of services. An example of such a service network is Oracle's service network, which provides a variety of services available to customers. For example, a computing instance (e.g., a database system) in a private subnet of a customer VCN 104 may back up data to a service endpoint (e.g., an object storage device, Object Storage) without requiring a public IP address or access to the Internet. In some embodiments, a VCN may have only one SGW, and connections may only be initiated from a subnet within the VCN, not from the service network 110. If a VCN is peered with another, resources in the other VCN generally cannot access the SGW. Resources in an on-premises network connected to a VCN using FastConnect or VPN Connect may also use the service gateway configured for that VCN.

[0094] In some embodiments, the SGW 126 uses the concept of a service classless inter-domain routing (CIDR) label, which is a string that represents all regional public IP address ranges for a service or group of services of interest. Customers use the service CIDR label when they configure the SGW and associated routing rules to control traffic to the service. If the public IP address of the service changes in the future, the customer can optionally use it when configuring security rules without having to adjust them.

[0095] A Local Peer Gateway (LPG) 132 is a gateway that can be added to a customer VCN 104 and enables the VCN 104 to peer with another VCN in the same region. Peering refers to the VCNs communicating using private IP addresses without the traffic having to traverse a public network such as the Internet or without routing the traffic through the customer's on-premises network 116. In a preferred embodiment, the VCN has a separate LPG for each peer it establishes. Local peering or VCN peering is a common practice for establishing network connectivity between different applications or infrastructure management functions.

[0096] Service providers (such as providers of services in service network 110) can provide access to services using different access models. According to the public access model, the service can be exposed as a public endpoint that can be publicly accessed by a computing instance in a customer VCN via a public network (such as the Internet), and / or can be privately accessed via SGW 126. According to a specific private access model, the service can be accessed as a private IP endpoint in a private subnet in the customer's VCN. This is called private endpoint (PE) access and enables service providers to expose their services as instances in the customer's private network. Private endpoint resources represent services within the customer's VCN. Each PE appears as a VNIC (called a PE-VNIC, with one or more private IPs) in a subnet selected by the customer in the customer's VCN. Therefore, PE provides a way to present services in a private customer VCN subnet using VNICs. Since the endpoint is exposed as a VNIC, all features associated with the VNIC (such as routing rules, security lists, etc.) can now be used for the PE VNIC.

[0097] Service providers can register their services to enable access through PE. Providers can associate policies with services, which limits the visibility of the service to customer tenancies. Providers can register multiple services under a single virtual IP address (VIP), especially for multi-tenant services. There can be multiple such private endpoints (in multiple VCNs) representing the same service.

[0098] The compute instances in the private subnet can then access the service using the private IP address of the PE VNIC or the service DNS name. The compute instances in the customer VCN can access the service by sending traffic to the private IP address of the PE in the customer VCN. The private access gateway (PAGW) 130 is a gateway resource that can be attached to a service provider VCN (e.g., a VCN in the service network 110) that acts as an entry / exit point for all traffic from / to the private endpoints of the customer subnet. PAGW 130 enables providers to scale the number of PE connections without utilizing their internal IP address resources. Providers only need to configure one PAGW for any number of services registered in a single VCN. Providers can represent services as private endpoints in multiple VCNs for one or more customers. From the customer's perspective, the PE VNIC is not attached to the customer's instance, but appears to be attached to the service that the customer wants to interact with. Traffic to the private endpoint is routed to the service via PAGW 130. These are referred to as customer-to-service private connections (C2S connections).

[0099] The PE concept can also be used to extend private access for services to the customer's on-premises networks and data centers by allowing traffic to flow across FastConnect / IPsec links and private endpoints in the customer's VCN. Private access to services can also be extended to the customer's peer VCNs by allowing traffic to flow between the LPG 132 and the PEs in the customer's VCN.

[0100] A customer can control routing in a VCN at the subnet level, so a customer can specify which subnets in a customer's VCN (such as VCN 104) use each gateway. The routing table of a VCN is used to decide whether traffic is allowed to leave the VCN through a particular gateway. For example, in a particular instance, a routing table for a public subnet within a customer VCN 104 can send non-local traffic through IGW 120. A routing table for a private subnet within the same customer VCN 104 can send traffic destined for a CSP service through SGW 126. All remaining traffic can be sent via NAT gateway 128. The routing table only controls traffic that leaves the VCN.

[0101] The security list associated with the VCN is used to control the traffic that enters the VCN via the gateway via an inbound connection. All resources in the subnet use the same routing table and security list. The security list can be used to control specific types of traffic that are allowed to enter and exit the instances in the subnet of the VCN. Security list rules can include ingress (inbound) and egress (outbound) rules. For example, an ingress rule can specify an allowed source address range, and an egress rule can specify an allowed destination address range. Security rules can specify specific protocols (e.g., TCP, ICMP), specific ports (e.g., 22 for SSH, 3389 for Windows RDP), etc. In some embodiments, the operating system of the instance can enforce its own firewall rules that comply with the security list rules. Rules can be stateful (e.g., tracking connections and automatically allowing responses without explicit security list rules for response traffic) or stateless.

[0102] Access from a customer VCN (i.e., through resources or compute instances deployed on VCN 104) can be categorized as public access, private access, or dedicated access. Public access refers to an access model that uses a public IP address or NAT to access a public endpoint. Private access enables customer workloads (e.g., resources in a private subnet) in VCN 104 with private IP addresses to access services without traversing a public network such as the Internet. In certain embodiments, CSPI 101 enables customer VCN workloads with private IP addresses to access (public service endpoints of) services using a service gateway. Thus, the service gateway provides a private access model by establishing a virtual link between a customer's VCN and a public endpoint of a service that resides outside of the customer's private network.

[0103] Additionally, CSPI can provide dedicated public access using technologies such as FastConnect public peering, where a customer on-premises instance can use a FastConnect connection to access one or more services in a customer's VCN without traversing a public network such as the Internet. CSPI can also provide dedicated private access using FastConnect private peering, where a customer on-premises instance with a private IP address can use a FastConnect connection to access the customer's VCN workloads. FastConnect is a network connectivity alternative to using the public Internet to connect a customer's on-premises network to CSPI and its services. FastConnect provides a simple, flexible, and cost-effective way to create dedicated and private connections with higher bandwidth options and a more reliable and consistent network experience compared to Internet-based connections.

[0104] Figure 1and the accompanying description above describe various virtualized components in an example virtual network.As described above, a virtual network is built on an underlying physical or substrate network. Figure 2 A simplified architecture diagram of physical components in a physical network within a CSPI 200 that provides an underlying virtual network according to certain embodiments is depicted. As shown, the CSPI 200 provides a distributed environment that includes components and resources (e.g., computing, storage, and network resources) provided by a cloud service provider (CSP). These components and resources are used to provide cloud services (e.g., IaaS services) to subscribing customers (i.e., customers who have subscribed to one or more services provided by the CSP). Based on the services subscribed by the customer, a subset of the resources of the CSPI 200 (e.g., computing, storage, and network resources) is provisioned to the customer. The customer can then build its own cloud-based (i.e., CSPI-hosted) customizable and private virtual network using the physical computing, storage, and networking resources provided by the CSPI 200. As indicated previously, these customer networks are referred to as virtual cloud networks (VCNs). Customers can deploy one or more customer resources, such as computing instances, on these customer VCNs. The computing instances can be in the form of virtual machines, bare metal instances, etc. The CSPI 200 provides infrastructure and a set of complementary cloud services that enable customers to build and run a wide range of applications and services in a highly available hosting environment.

[0105] exist Figure 2 In the example embodiment depicted in , the physical components of CSPI 200 include one or more physical host machines or physical servers (e.g., 202, 206, 208), network virtualization devices (NVDs) (e.g., 210, 212), top-of-rack (TOR) switches (e.g., 214, 216), and physical networks (e.g., 218), as well as switches in physical network 218. The physical host machines or servers can host and execute various computing instances that participate in one or more subnets of the VCN. The computing instances can include virtual machine instances and bare metal instances. For example, Figure 1 The various computational examples depicted in Figure 2 The physical host machines depicted in the figure host the virtual machine compute instances in the VCN. The virtual machine compute instances in the VCN can be executed by one host machine or multiple different host machines. The physical host machines can also host virtual host machines, container-based hosts or functions, etc. Figure 1 The VNIC and VCN VR depicted in the figure can be represented by Figure 2 The NVD implementation depicted in FIG. Figure 1 The gateway depicted in can be Figure 2 The host machine and / or NVD described in .

[0106] A host machine or server can execute a hypervisor (also known as a virtual machine monitor or VMM) that creates and enables a virtualized environment on the host machine. Virtualization or the virtualized environment facilitates cloud-based computing. One or more computing instances can be created, executed, and managed on the host machine by the hypervisor on the host machine. The hypervisor on the host machine enables the physical computing resources of the host machine (e.g., computing, memory, and network resources) to be shared among the various computing instances executed by the host machine.

[0107] For example, as Figure 2 depicted, host machines 202 and 208 execute hypervisors 260 and 266 respectively. These hypervisors can be implemented using software, firmware, hardware, or a combination thereof. Generally, a hypervisor is a process or software layer that is located above the operating system (OS) of the host machine, and the OS in turn executes on the hardware processor of the host machine. The hypervisor provides a virtualized environment by enabling the physical computing resources of the host machine (e.g., processing resources such as processors / cores, memory resources, network resources) to be shared among the various virtual machine computing instances executed by the host machine. For example, in Figure 2 , hypervisor 260 can be located above the OS of host machine 202 and enable the computing resources of host machine 202 (e.g., processing, memory, and network resources) to be shared among the computing instances (e.g., virtual machines) executed by host machine 202. A virtual machine can have its own operating system (referred to as a guest operating system), which can be the same as or different from the OS of the host machine. The operating system of the virtual machine executed by the host machine can be the same as or different from the operating system of another virtual machine executed by the same host machine. Thus, the hypervisor enables multiple operating systems to be executed simultaneously while sharing the same computing resources of the host machine. Figure 2 The host machines depicted in

[0108] can have the same or different types of hypervisors. Figure 2 Computing instances can be virtual machine instances or bare-metal instances. In

[0109] In some cases, the entire host machine can be supplied to a single customer, and one or more computing instances (or virtual machines or bare metal instances) hosted by the host machine all belong to the same customer. In other cases, the host machine can be shared between multiple customers (i.e., multiple tenants). In this multi-tenancy scenario, the host machine can host virtual machine computing instances belonging to different customers. These computing instances can be members of different VCNs of different customers. In some embodiments, the bare metal computing instance is hosted by a bare metal server without a hypervisor. When supplying a bare metal computing instance, a single customer or tenant maintains control of the physical CPU, memory, and network interface of the host machine hosting the bare metal instance, and the host machine is not shared with other customers or tenants.

[0110] As previously described, each compute instance that is part of a VCN is associated with a VNIC that enables the compute instance to be a member of a subnet of the VCN. The VNIC associated with a compute instance facilitates the communication of packets or frames to and from the compute instance. The VNIC is associated with the compute instance when the compute instance is created. In some embodiments, for a compute instance executed by a host machine, the VNIC associated with the compute instance is executed by an NVD connected to the host machine. For example, in Figure 2 , host machine 202 executes virtual machine compute instance 268 associated with VNIC 276, and VNIC 276 is executed by NVD 210 connected to host machine 202. As another example, bare metal instance 272 hosted by host machine 206 is associated with VNIC 280 executed by NVD 212 connected to host machine 206. As yet another example, VNIC 284 is associated with compute instance 274 executed by host machine 208, and VNIC 284 is executed by NVD 212 connected to host machine 208.

[0111] For compute instances hosted by a host machine, the NVD connected to the host machine also executes the VCN VR corresponding to the VCN of which the compute instance is a member. Figure 2 In the embodiment depicted in , NVD 210 executes VCN VR 277 corresponding to the VCN of which compute instance 268 is a member. NVD 212 may also execute one or more VCN VRs 283 corresponding to the VCNs corresponding to the compute instances hosted by host machines 206 and 208.

[0112] The host machine may include one or more network interface cards (NICs) that enable the host machine to connect to other devices. The NIC on the host machine may provide one or more ports (or interfaces) that enable the host machine to communicatively connect to another device. For example, the host machine may connect to the NVD using one or more ports (or interfaces) provided on the host machine and on the NVD. The host machine may also connect to other devices (such as another host machine).

[0113] For example, in Figure 2 2, host machine 202 is connected to NVD 210 using link 220, which extends between port 234 provided by NIC 232 of host machine 202 and port 236 of NVD 210. Host machine 206 is connected to NVD 212 using link 224, which extends between port 246 provided by NIC 244 of host machine 206 and port 248 of NVD 212. Host machine 208 is connected to NVD 212 using link 226, which extends between port 252 provided by NIC 250 of host machine 208 and port 254 of NVD 212.

[0114] The NVD is in turn connected via communication links to top-of-rack (TOR) switches, which are connected to the physical network 218 (also referred to as a switch fabric). In some embodiments, the links between the host machine and the NVD and between the NVD and the TOR switches are Ethernet links. For example, in Figure 2 , NVDs 210 and 212 are connected to TOR switches 214 and 216 using links 228 and 230, respectively. In some embodiments, links 220, 224, 226, 228, and 230 are Ethernet links. A collection of host machines and NVDs connected to a TOR is sometimes referred to as a rack.

[0115] Physical network 218 provides a communication architecture that enables TOR switches to communicate with each other. Physical network 218 can be a multi-layer network. In some embodiments, physical network 218 is a multi-layer Clos network of switches, where TOR switches 214 and 216 represent leaf nodes of the multi-layer and multi-node physical switching network 218. Different Clos network configurations are possible, including but not limited to 2-layer networks, 3-layer networks, 4-layer networks, 5-layer networks, and general "n"-layer networks. Examples of Clos networks are described in Figure 5 and described below.

[0116] There may be various connection configurations between the host machine and the NVD, such as one-to-one configuration, many-to-one configuration, one-to-many configuration, etc. In a one-to-one configuration implementation, each host machine is connected to its own separate NVD. Figure 2 In , host machine 202 is connected to NVD 210 via NIC 232 of host machine 202. In a many-to-one configuration, multiple host machines are connected to one NVD. Figure 2 , host machines 206 and 208 are connected to the same NVD 212 via NICs 244 and 250, respectively.

[0117] In a one-to-many configuration, one host machine connects to multiple NVDs. Figure 3 An example within CSPI 300 is shown, where a host machine is connected to multiple NVDs. Figure 3 , a host machine 302 includes a network interface card (NIC) 304 that includes a plurality of ports 306 and 308. The host machine 300 is connected to a first NVD 310 via port 306 and link 320, and to a second NVD 312 via port 308 and link 322. Ports 306 and 308 may be Ethernet ports and links 320 and 322 between the host machine 302 and the NVDs 310 and 312 may be Ethernet links. The NVD 310 is in turn connected to a first TOR switch 314 and the NVD 312 is connected to a second TOR switch 316. The links between the NVDs 310 and 312 and the TOR switches 314 and 316 may be Ethernet links. The TOR switches 314 and 316 represent layer 0 switching devices in a multi-layer physical network 318.

[0118] Figure 3 The arrangement depicted in FIG. 3 provides two separate physical network paths from the physical switch network 318 to the host machine 302: a first path traversing the TOR switch 314 to the NVD 310 and then to the host machine 302, and a second path traversing the TOR switch 316 to the NVD 312 and then to the host machine 302. The separate paths provide enhanced availability (referred to as high availability) of the host machine 302. If a problem occurs in one of the paths (e.g., a link in one of the paths is broken) or a device (e.g., a particular NVD is not running), then the other path can be used for communication with the host machine 302.

[0119] exist Figure 3 In the configuration depicted in , the host machine is connected to two different NVDs using two different ports provided by the host machine's NIC. In other embodiments, the host machine may include multiple NICs that enable the host machine to connect to multiple NVDs.

[0120] Return to reference Figure 2NVD is a physical device or component that performs one or more network and / or storage virtualization functions. NVD can be any device with one or more processing units (e.g., CPU, network processing unit (NPU), FPGA, packet processing pipeline, etc.), memory (including cache), and ports. Various virtualization functions can be performed by software / firmware executed by one or more processing units of NVD.

[0121] NVD can be implemented in a variety of different forms. For example, in some embodiments, NVD is implemented as an interface card called a smartNIC or an intelligent NIC with an onboard embedded processor. A smartNIC is a device that is independent of the NIC on the host machine. Figure 2 , NVDs 210 and 212 may be implemented as smartNICs connected to host machine 202 and host machines 206 and 208, respectively.

[0122] However, smartNIC is only one example of an NVD implementation. Various other implementations are possible. For example, in some other implementations, NVD or one or more functions performed by NVD may be incorporated into or performed by one or more host machines, one or more TOR switches, and other components of CSPI 200. For example, NVD may be implemented in a host machine, where the functions performed by NVD are performed by the host machine. As another example, NVD may be part of a TOR switch, or a TOR switch may be configured to perform the functions performed by NVD, which enables the TOR switch to perform various complex packet conversions for a public cloud. A TOR that performs the functions of NVD is sometimes referred to as a smart TOR. In other implementations that provide virtual machine (VM) instances to customers instead of bare metal (BM) instances, the functions performed by NVD may be implemented inside the hypervisor of the host machine. In some other implementations, some of the functions of NVD may be offloaded to a centralized service running on a group of host machines.

[0123] In some embodiments, such as when implemented as Figure 2 When using the smartNIC shown in FIG. 1 , the NVD may include multiple physical ports that enable it to connect to one or more host machines and one or more TOR switches. Ports on the NVD may be classified as host-facing ports (also referred to as "south ports") or network-facing or TOR-facing ports (also referred to as "north ports"). The host-facing ports of the NVD are the ports used to connect the NVD to the host machines. Figure 2 Examples of host-facing ports include port 236 on NVD 210 and ports 248 and 254 on NVD 212. The network-facing ports of the NVD are the ports used to connect the NVD to the TOR switch. Figure 2 Examples of network-facing ports include port 256 on NVD 210 and port 258 on NVD 212. Figure 2 As shown in FIG. 1 , NVD 210 is connected to TOR switch 214 using link 228 extending from port 256 of NVD 210 to TOR switch 214. Similarly, NVD 212 is connected to TOR switch 216 using link 230 extending from port 258 of NVD 212 to TOR switch 216.

[0124] NVD receives packets and frames (e.g., packets and frames generated by a compute instance hosted by the host machine) from a host machine via a host-facing port, and after performing necessary packet processing, may forward the packets and frames to a TOR switch via a network-facing port of NVD. NVD may receive packets and frames from a TOR switch via a network-facing port of NVD, and after performing necessary packet processing, may forward the packets and frames to a host machine via a host-facing port of NVD.

[0125] In some embodiments, there may be multiple ports and associated links between the NVD and the TOR switch. These ports and links may be aggregated to form a link aggregate group (referred to as a LAG) of multiple ports or links. Link aggregation allows multiple physical links between two endpoints (e.g., between the NVD and the TOR switch) to be treated as a single logical link. All physical links in a given LAG may operate in full-duplex mode at the same speed. LAG helps increase the bandwidth and reliability of the connection between the two endpoints. If one of the physical links in the LAG fails, the traffic will be dynamically and transparently reassigned to one of the other physical links in the LAG. Aggregated physical links deliver higher bandwidth than each individual link. Multiple ports associated with the LAG are treated as a single logical port. Traffic may be load balanced between multiple physical links of the LAG. One or more LAGs may be configured between two endpoints. The two endpoints may be located between the NVD and the TOR switch, between the host machine and the NVD, and so on.

[0126] NVD implements or performs network virtualization functions. These functions are performed by software / firmware executed by NVD. Examples of network virtualization functions include, but are not limited to: packet encapsulation and decapsulation functions; functions for creating VCN networks; functions for implementing network policies, such as VCN security lists (firewall) functionality; functions for facilitating packet routing and forwarding to and from computing instances in the VCN; and the like. In some embodiments, upon receiving a packet, NVD is configured to execute a packet processing pipeline to process the packet and determine how to forward or route the packet. As part of this packet processing pipeline, NVD may execute one or more virtual functions associated with an overlay network, such as executing a VNIC associated with a computer instance in the VCN, executing a virtual router (VR) associated with the VCN, encapsulation and decapsulation of packets to facilitate forwarding or routing in a virtual network, execution of certain gateways (e.g., local peer gateways), implementation of security lists, network security groups, network address translation (NAT) functionality (e.g., translating public IPs to private IPs on a host-by-host basis), throttling functions, and other functions.

[0127] In some embodiments, the packet processing data path in NVD may include multiple packet pipelines, each pipeline consisting of a series of packet transformation stages. In some embodiments, after receiving a packet, the packet is parsed and classified into a single pipeline. The packet is then processed in a linear manner, one stage after another, until the packet is either discarded or sent out through the interface of NVD. These stages provide basic functional packet processing building blocks (e.g., verifying headers, enforcing throttling, inserting new layer 2 headers, enforcing L4 firewalls, VCN encapsulation / decapsulation, etc.) so that new pipelines can be built by combining existing stages, and new functionality can be added by creating new stages and plugging them into existing pipelines.

[0128] NVD can perform control plane and data plane functions corresponding to the control plane and data plane of the VCN. An example of a VCN control plane is also Fig.12 , Fig.13 , Fig.14 and Fig.15 An example of a VCN data plane is depicted in FIG. 1 (see reference numerals 1216, 1316, 1416, and 1516) and described below. Fig.12 , Fig.13 , Fig.14 and Fig.15(see reference numerals 1218, 1318, 1418, and 1518) and described below. Control plane functions include functions for configuring the network that controls how data is forwarded (e.g., setting routes and routing tables, configuring VNICs, etc.). In some embodiments, a VCN control plane is provided that centrally calculates all overlay-to-substrate mappings and publishes them to NVD and virtual network edge devices (such as various gateways, such as DRG, SGW, IGW, etc.). Firewall rules can also be published using the same mechanism. In some embodiments, the NVD only obtains mappings associated with the NVD. Data plane functions include functions for actually routing / forwarding packets based on the configuration set using the control plane. The VCN data plane is implemented by encapsulating the customer's network packets before they traverse the substrate network. The encapsulation / decapsulation functionality is implemented on the NVD. In some embodiments, the NVD is configured to intercept all network packets entering and leaving the host machine and perform network virtualization functions.

[0129] As indicated above, NVD performs various virtualization functions, including VNIC and VCN VR. NVD can execute VNICs associated with computing instances hosted by one or more host machines connected to the VNIC. For example, Figure 2 , NVD 210 executes functionality of VNIC 276 associated with compute instance 268 hosted by host machine 202 connected to NVD 210. As another example, NVD 212 executes VNIC 280 associated with bare metal compute instance 272 hosted by host machine 206, and executes VNIC 284 associated with compute instance 274 hosted by host machine 208. The host machines may host compute instances belonging to different VCNs (belonging to different customers), and the NVD connected to the host machines may execute the VNICs corresponding to the compute instances (i.e., perform VNIC-related functionality).

[0130] NVD also implements a VCN virtual router corresponding to the VCN of the compute instance. Figure 2 , NVD 210 executes VCN VR 277 corresponding to the VCN to which compute instance 268 belongs. NVD 212 executes one or more VCN VRs 283 corresponding to one or more VCNs to which compute instances hosted by host machines 206 and 208 belong. In some embodiments, the VCN VR corresponding to the VCN is executed by all NVDs connected to the host machine hosting at least one compute instance belonging to the VCN. If the host machine hosts compute instances belonging to different VCNs, then the NVDs connected to the host machine can execute VCN VRs corresponding to those different VCNs.

[0131] In addition to the VNICs and VCN VRs, NVD may also execute various software (e.g., daemons) and include one or more hardware components that facilitate the various network virtualization functions performed by NVD. For simplicity, these various components are grouped together as Figure 2 ” packet processing component” shown in . For example, NVD 210 includes packet processing component 286 and NVD 212 includes packet processing component 288. For example, a packet processing component for NVD may include a packet processor configured to interact with the port and hardware interface of NVD to monitor all packets received by NVD and transmitted using NVD and store network information. Network information may, for example, include network flow information and per-flow information (e.g., per-flow statistics) that identify different network flows handled by NVD. In some embodiments, network flow information may be stored on a per-VNIC basis. The packet processor may perform packet-by-packet manipulation and implement stateful NAT and L4 firewall (FW). As another example, the packet processing component may include a replication agent configured to copy information stored by NVD to one or more different replication target repositories. As yet another example, the packet processing component may include a logging agent configured to perform the logging function of NVD. The packet processing component may also include software for monitoring the performance and health of NVD and possibly also monitoring the status and health of other components connected to NVD.

[0132] Figure 1 Components of an example virtual or overlay network are shown, including a VCN, subnets within the VCN, compute instances deployed on the subnets, VNICs associated with the compute instances, VRs for the VCN, and a set of gateways configured for the VCN. Figure 1 The overlay component depicted in can be composed of Figure 2 For example, a compute instance in a VCN can be executed or hosted by one or more of the physical components depicted in FIG. Figure 2 . For a compute instance hosted by a host machine, a VNIC associated with the compute instance is typically executed by an NVD connected to the host machine (i.e., VNIC functionality is provided by the NVD connected to the host machine). VCN VR functionality for a VCN is executed by all NVDs connected to the host machines that host or execute compute instances as part of the VCN. Gateways associated with a VCN may be executed by one or more different types of NVDs. For example, some gateways may be executed by smartNICs, while other gateways may be executed by one or more host machines or other implementations of NVDs.

[0133] As described above, a compute instance in a customer VCN can communicate with a variety of different endpoints, where the endpoint can be in the same subnet as the source compute instance, in a different subnet but in the same VCN as the source compute instance, or with an endpoint located outside the VCN of the source compute instance. These communications are facilitated using VNICs associated with the compute instances, VCN VRs, and gateways associated with the VCN.

[0134] For communication between two computing instances on the same subnet in a VCN, VNICs associated with the source and destination computing instances are used to facilitate communication. The source and destination computing instances may be hosted by the same host machine or different host machines. Packets originating from the source computing instance may be forwarded from the host machine hosting the source computing instance to the NVD connected to the host machine. On the NVD, packets are processed using a packet processing pipeline, which may include the execution of a VNIC associated with the source computing instance. Since the destination endpoint for the packet is within the same subnet, the execution of the VNIC associated with the source computing instance causes the packet to be forwarded to the NVD executing the VNIC associated with the destination computing instance, which then processes the packet and forwards it to the destination computing instance. The VNICs associated with the source and destination computing instances may be executed on the same NVD (e.g., when the source and destination computing instances are hosted by the same host machine) or on different NVDs (e.g., when the source and destination computing instances are hosted by different host machines connected to different NVDs). The VNIC may use the routing / forwarding table stored by the NVD to determine the next hop for the packet.

[0135] For packets to be transmitted from a compute instance in a subnet to an endpoint in a different subnet in the same VCN, packets originating from a source compute instance are transmitted from a host machine hosting the source compute instance to an NVD connected to the host machine. On the NVD, packets are processed using a packet processing pipeline, which may include the execution of one or more VNICs and VRs associated with the VCN. For example, as part of the packet processing pipeline, the NVD executes or calls functionality corresponding to a VNIC associated with the source compute instance (also referred to as executing the VNIC). The functionality executed by the VNIC may include checking a VLAN tag on the packet. Since the destination of the packet is outside the subnet, the VCN VR functionality is next called and executed by the NVD. The VCN VR then routes the packet to the NVD executing the VNIC associated with the destination compute instance. The VNIC associated with the destination compute instance then processes the packet and forwards the packet to the destination compute instance. The VNICs associated with the source and destination compute instances may be executed on the same NVD (e.g., when the source and destination compute instances are hosted by the same host machine) or on different NVDs (e.g., when the source and destination compute instances are hosted by different host machines connected to different NVDs).

[0136] If the destination for the packet is outside the VCN of the source compute instance, then the packet originating from the source compute instance is transmitted from the host machine hosting the source compute instance to the NVD connected to the host machine. The NVD executes the VNIC associated with the source compute instance. Because the destination endpoint of the packet is outside the VCN, the packet is then processed by the VCN VR for the VCN. The NVD invokes VCN VR functionality, which causes the packet to be forwarded to the NVD executing the appropriate gateway associated with the VCN. For example, if the destination is an endpoint within the customer's on-premises network, then the packet may be forwarded by the VCN VR to the NVD executing the DRG gateway configured for the VCN. The VCN VR may be executed on the same NVD as the NVD executing the VNIC associated with the source compute instance, or by a different NVD. The gateway may be executed by an NVD, which may be a smartNIC, a host machine, or other NVD implementation. The packet is then processed by the gateway and forwarded to the next hop, which facilitates delivery of the packet to its intended destination endpoint. For example, in Figure 2, a packet originating from compute instance 268 may be transmitted from host machine 202 to NVD 210 via link 220 (using NIC 232). On NVD 210, VNIC 276 is invoked because it is the VNIC associated with source compute instance 268. VNIC 276 is configured to inspect information encapsulated in the packet and determine a next hop for forwarding the packet with the intent of facilitating delivery of the packet to its intended destination endpoint, and then forward the packet to the determined next hop.

[0137] Compute instances deployed on a VCN can communicate with a variety of different endpoints. These endpoints may include endpoints hosted by CSPI 200 and endpoints external to CSPI 200. Endpoints hosted by CSPI 200 may include instances in the same VCN or other VCNs, which may be the customer's VCN or a VCN that does not belong to the customer. Communications between endpoints hosted by CSPI 200 may be performed over physical network 218. Compute instances may also communicate with endpoints that are not hosted by CSPI 200 or external to CSPI 200. Examples of these endpoints include endpoints within a customer's on-premises network or data center, or public endpoints accessible over a public network such as the Internet. Communications with endpoints external to CSPI 200 may be performed over a public network (e.g., the Internet) using various communication protocols. Figure 2 not shown) or a dedicated network ( Figure 2 Executed by (not shown).

[0138] Figure 2 The architecture of CSPI 200 depicted in the drawings is merely exemplary and is not intended to be limiting. In alternative embodiments, variations, substitutions, and modifications are possible. For example, in some embodiments, CSPI 200 may have a Figure 2 The systems or components shown in FIG. 5 may include more or fewer systems or components, may combine two or more systems, or may have different system configurations or arrangements. Figure 2 The systems, subsystems, and other components depicted in the can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the corresponding system, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., on a memory device).

[0139] Figure 4 Depicted is a connection between a host machine and an NVD for providing I / O virtualization to support multi-tenancy in accordance with certain embodiments. Figure 4As depicted in FIG. 4 , a host machine 402 executes a hypervisor 404 that provides a virtualized environment. The host machine 402 executes two virtual machine instances, VM1 406 belonging to customer / tenant #1 and VM2 408 belonging to customer / tenant #2. The host machine 402 includes a physical NIC 410 connected to an NVD 412 via a link 414. Each compute instance is attached to a VNIC executed by the NVD 412. Figure 4 In the embodiment of FIG. 4 , VM1 406 is attached to VNIC-VM1 420 and VM2 408 is attached to VNIC-VM2 422 .

[0140] like Figure 4 As shown in FIG, NIC 410 includes two logical NICs, logical NIC A 416 and logical NIC B 418. Each virtual machine is attached to and configured to work with its own logical NIC. For example, VM1 406 is attached to logical NIC A 416 and VM2 408 is attached to logical NIC B 418. Although host machine 402 includes only one physical NIC 410 shared by multiple tenants, each tenant's virtual machines believe they have their own host machine and NICs because of the logical NICs.

[0141] In some embodiments, each logical NIC is assigned its own VLAN ID. Thus, a particular VLAN ID is assigned to logical NIC A 416 for tenant #1, and a separate VLAN ID is assigned to logical NIC B 418 for tenant #2. When a packet is transmitted from VM1 406, a tag assigned to tenant #1 is appended to the packet by the hypervisor, and the packet is then transmitted from the host machine 402 to the NVD 412 via link 414. In a similar manner, when a packet is transmitted from VM2 408, a tag assigned to tenant #2 is appended to the packet by the hypervisor, and the packet is then transmitted from the host machine 402 to the NVD 412 via link 414. Accordingly, a packet 424 transmitted from the host machine 402 to the NVD 412 has an associated tag 426 that identifies the particular tenant and the associated VM. On the NVD, for a packet 424 received from the host machine 402, a label 426 associated with the packet is used to determine whether the packet is processed by VNIC-VM1 420 or VNIC-VM2 422. The packet is then processed by the corresponding VNIC. Figure 4 The configuration described in enables each tenant's compute instances to believe that they have their own host machine and NIC. Figure 4 The setup described in provides I / O virtualization to support multi-tenancy.

[0142] Figure 5A simplified block diagram of a physical network 500 is depicted in accordance with certain embodiments. Figure 5 The embodiments depicted in are structured as Clos networks. A Clos network is a specific type of network topology designed to provide connection redundancy while maintaining high bisection bandwidth and maximum resource utilization. A Clos network is a non-blocking, multi-stage or multi-layer switching network, where the number of stages or layers can be two, three, four, five, etc. Figure 5 The embodiment depicted in is a 3-layer network, including layer 1, layer 2, and layer 3. TOR switch 504 represents a layer 0 switch in a Clos network. One or more NVDs are connected to the TOR switch. The layer 0 switch is also called the edge device of the physical network. The layer 0 switch is connected to the layer 1 switch, which is also called the leaf switch. Figure 5 In the embodiment depicted in , a group of "n" layer 0TOR switches are connected to a group of "n" layer 1 switches and together form a cluster (pod). Each layer 0 switch in a cluster is interconnected to all layer 1 switches in the cluster, but there is no switch connectivity between clusters. In some embodiments, two clusters are referred to as blocks. Each block is served or connected to a group of "n" layer 2 switches (sometimes called backbone switches). There can be several blocks in the physical network topology. The layer 2 switches are in turn connected to "n" layer 3 switches (sometimes called super backbone switches). The communication of data packets over the physical network 500 is typically performed using one or more layer 3 communication protocols. Typically, all layers of the physical network (except the TOR layer) are n-way redundant, thus allowing high availability. Policies can be specified for clusters and blocks to control the visibility of switches to each other in the physical network, thereby enabling the expansion (scale) of the physical network.

[0143] A Clos network is characterized by a fixed maximum number of hops from one layer 0 switch to another layer 0 switch (or from an NVD connected to a layer 0 switch to another NVD connected to a layer 0 switch). For example, in a 3-layer Clos network, a packet takes at most seven hops from one NVD to another NVD, where the source and destination NVDs are connected to the leaf layer of the Clos network. Similarly, in a 4-layer Clos network, a packet takes at most nine hops from one NVD to another NVD, where the source and destination NVDs are connected to the leaf layer of the Clos network. Therefore, the Clos network architecture maintains consistent latency throughout the network, which is important for communications within and between data centers. The Clos topology is horizontally scalable and cost-effective. The bandwidth / throughput capacity of the network can be easily increased by adding more switches at various layers (e.g., more leaf switches and spine switches) and by increasing the number of links between switches in adjacent layers.

[0144] In some embodiments, each resource within the CSPI is assigned a unique identifier called a cloud identifier (CID). This identifier is included as part of the resource's information and can be used to manage the resource, for example, via the console or through an API. An example syntax for a CID is:

[0145] ocid1.<RESOURCE TYPE> . <realm>.[REGION][.FUTURE USE].<UNIQUE ID>

[0146] in,

[0147] ocid1: a text string indicating the version of the CID;

[0148] resource type: the type of resource (for example, instance, volume, VCN, subnet, user, group, etc.);

[0149] realm: The realm where the resource is located. Example values ​​are "c1" for the commercial realm, "c2" for the government cloud realm, or "c3" for the federal government cloud realm. Each realm can have its own domain name;

[0150] region: The region where the resource is located. This part may be empty if the region does not apply to the resource;

[0151] future use: Reserved for future use.

[0152] unique ID: The unique portion of the ID. The format can vary depending on the type of resource or service.

[0153] Multi-cloud Introduction

[0154] Figure 6 A simplified high-level diagram of a distributed environment 600 is depicted, according to some embodiments, that includes multiple cloud environments provided by different cloud service providers (CSPs), wherein the cloud environments include a specific cloud environment that provides a specialized infrastructure that enables one or more cloud services provided by the specific cloud environment to be used by customers of other cloud environments. Figure 6 As depicted in , various different cloud environments (also referred to as "clouds") may be provided by different cloud service providers (CSPs), and each cloud environment or cloud offering may be one or more cloud services subscribed to by one or more customers of the cloud environment. A set of cloud services offered by a cloud environment provided by a CSP may include one or more different types of cloud services, including but not limited to software as a service (SaaS) services, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) services, platform as a service (PaaS) services, database as a service (DBaaS) services, etc. Examples of cloud environments provided by various CSPs include those provided by Oracle Corporation. Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), provided by Microsoft Corporation Azure, Google Cloud provided by Google LLC TM , Amazon Web Services provided by Amazon Corporation Etc. The cloud services provided by a particular cloud environment may be different from the set of cloud services provided by another cloud environment.

[0155] In a typical cloud environment, a CSP provides a cloud service provider infrastructure (CSPI) for providing one or more cloud services supplied by the cloud environment to its customers. The CSPI provided by the CSP may include various types of hardware and software resources, including computing resources, memory resources, networking resources, consoles for accessing cloud services, and the like. Customers of a cloud environment provided by a CSP may subscribe to one or more of the cloud services supplied by the cloud environment. Various subscription models may be supplied by a CSP to its customers. After a customer subscribes to a cloud service provided by a cloud environment, one or more users may be associated with the subscribing customer, and these users may use the cloud services subscribed by the customer. In some embodiments, when a customer subscribes to a cloud service provided by a particular cloud environment, a customer account or customer lease is created for the customer. One or more users may then be associated with a customer lease, and these users may then use the services subscribed by the customer under the customer lease. Information about services subscribed by a customer, users associated with a customer lease, and the like is typically stored within the cloud environment and associated with the customer lease.

[0156] For example, Figure 6 6 shows three different cloud environments provided by three different CSPs. These include cloud environment A (Cloud A) 610 provided by CSP A, cloud environment B (Cloud B) 640 provided by CSP B, and cloud environment C (Cloud C) 660 provided by CSP C. Cloud A 610 includes infrastructure CSPI_A 612 provided by CSP A, and this infrastructure can be used to provide a set of services "Service A" 614 provided by Cloud A 610. One or more customers (e.g., Cust_A1 616-1, Cust_A2 616-2) can subscribe to one or more of the services A 614 provided by Cloud A 610. One or more users 618-1 can be associated with Customer A1 616-1 and can use the services subscribed by Customer A1 616-1 in Cloud A 610. In a similar manner, one or more users 618-2 may be associated with customer A2 616-2 and may use services subscribed by customer A2 616-2 in cloud A 610. In various use cases, the services subscribed by customer A1 616-1 may be different from the services subscribed by customer A2 616-2.

[0157] like Figure 6 , cloud B 640 includes infrastructure CSPI_B 642 provided by CSP B, and this infrastructure can be used to provide a set of services “Service B” 644 offered by cloud B 640. One or more customers (e.g., Cust_B1 646-1) can subscribe to one or more services in Service B 644. One or more users 648-1 can be associated with customer B1 646-1 and can use the services subscribed by customer B1 646-1 in cloud B 640.

[0158] like Figure 6 As depicted in , cloud C 660 includes infrastructure CSPI_C 662 provided by CSP C, and this infrastructure can be used to provide a set of services "Service C" 664 offered by cloud C 660. One or more customers (e.g., Cust_C1 666-1) can subscribe to one or more services in Service C 664. One or more users 668-1 can be associated with customer C1 666-1 and can use the services subscribed by customer C1 666-1 in cloud C 660. It is noted that service A 614, service B 644, and service C 664 can be different from each other.

[0159] In existing cloud implementations, each cloud provides a closed ecosystem for its subscribing customers and associated users. Therefore, customers of a cloud environment and their associated users are limited to using the services provided by the cloud to which the customer subscribes. For example, customer B1 646-1 and its user 648-1 are limited to using service B 644 provided by cloud B 640, and cannot use their account in cloud B 640 to access services from a different cloud environment, such as services in service A 614 provided by cloud A 610 or services in service C 664 provided by cloud C 660. The teachings described herein overcome this limitation. As described in the present disclosure, various techniques are described that enable the creation of a link between two cloud environments, which enables services provided by a first cloud environment provided by a first CSP to be used by customers (and associated users) of a second different cloud environment provided by a second different CSP using the customer's account in the second cloud environment.

[0160] For example, in Figure 6 In the embodiment depicted in FIG, the infrastructure CSPI_A 612 provided by CSP A includes, in addition to other infrastructure 620, special infrastructure 622 (referred to as multi-cloud enabled infrastructure 622 or MEI 622 or multi-cloud infrastructure 622) that enables one or more services 614 provided by cloud A to be used by customers and associated users of other clouds, such as clouds B 640 and C 660, using customer accounts in those other clouds. In some embodiments, customers of clouds B and C do not have to open separate accounts with cloud A to use one or more of the services 614 provided by cloud A 610. Customer B1 646-1 and associated users 648-1 of cloud B 640 can use one or more services 614 provided by cloud A 610 using their customer accounts or leases in cloud B 640. As another example, customer C1 666 - 1 and associated user 668 - 1 of cloud C 660 can use their customer accounts or tenancies in cloud C 660 to use one or more services 614 provided by cloud A 610 .

[0161] In certain embodiments, MEI 622 enables the creation of links between Cloud A 610 and other clouds, where these links can be used by customers of other clouds and their associated users to access and use services provided by Cloud A 610. Figure 6 6 shows in symbolic form a link 670 created between cloud A 610 and cloud B 640, and a link 672 created between cloud A 610 and cloud C 660. Via link 670, customers of cloud B 640 can access or use one or more services 614 provided by cloud A 610. Similarly, via link 672, customers of cloud C 660 can access or use one or more services 614 provided by cloud A 610.

[0162] There are different ways to implement IMEI 612. In some embodiments, IMEI 612 may include components that enable links to be established with different clouds. Figure 6 , MEI 622 includes infrastructure components 624 responsible for enabling a link 670 with cloud B 640, and infrastructure components 626 for enabling a link 672 with cloud C 660. In a similar manner, MEI 622 may include other components that enable and facilitate links with other clouds. In some embodiments, components of MEI 622 may also facilitate links with multiple different clouds.

[0163] There are several reasons why a customer of one cloud might want or desire to use cloud services provided by a different cloud. Figure 6 For example, there are a number of reasons why customer B1 646-1 of cloud B 640 may want to use cloud service 614 provided by cloud A 610. In one use case scenario, this may occur because cloud A 610 offers cloud services with functionality that cloud B 640 does not offer. As another use case scenario, clouds A and B may offer similar services, but the service offered by cloud A 610 may be better (e.g., more features / functionality, faster, etc.) than the corresponding service offered by cloud B 640. As another use case scenario, customer B1 646-1 of cloud B 640 may want to use cloud services provided by cloud A 610 because the price of the service is cheaper than that offered by cloud B 640. In some cases, there may be geographic restrictions or other reasons why customer B1 646-1 of cloud B 640 may want to use cloud services provided by cloud A 610. For example, cloud A 610 may offer a desired service in a geographic region that cloud B 640 does not offer service, or cloud B 640 does not offer a particular service in a geographic region where the customer desires service. There may be several other use case scenarios why a customer of one cloud might want to use services provided by a different cloud.

[0164] In some embodiments, the MEI 622 provides the capability and performs functions to create a link between cloud A 610 and another cloud, and via the link, enables a user associated with a customer of another cloud to access and use services provided by cloud A 610 from the other cloud itself in a seamless manner. For example, the MEI 622 enables a user 648-1 associated with customer B1 646-1 of cloud 640 to access services in service A 614 provided by cloud A 610 in a seamless manner. In some embodiments, a user interface (e.g., a console) that the user 648-1 can access from within cloud B 640 can be provided, which enables the user to see a list of services 614 provided by cloud A 610 and select a specific service that the user 648-1 wishes to access. In response to the user selection, the MEI 622 is responsible for performing the process of establishing a link 670 between clouds A and B to enable access to the requested service. The process for setting up the link 670 is substantially automatically performed by the MEI 622. Customer B1 646-1 or associated user 648-1 does not have to worry about performing any system, networking or other configuration changes required to facilitate the creation, maintenance and use of link 670 between clouds A 610 and B 640. There is no burden on the user or customer when creating the link between the clouds. Using the techniques described in this disclosure, the link is created in a fast and efficient manner.

[0165] MEI 622 can use various technologies to make the creation and use of links seamless for users and customers, thereby providing an enhanced user experience. In some embodiments, MEI 622 makes the user interface (e.g., graphical user interface GUI, etc.) and processing flow (such as for requesting services from cloud A 610 and for accessing the requested services from cloud A 610) that customer B1 and associated user 648-1 interact with substantially similar to the interface and processing flow that the customer / user will experience in cloud B 640. In this way, customers or users who may be accustomed to the interface and processing flow of cloud B 640 do not have to learn new interfaces and processing flows to access services 614 from cloud A 610. MEI 622 can present different interfaces and processing flows for users of different cloud environments. For example, a first set of user interfaces and processes substantially similar to the user interface and process of cloud B can be presented to users from cloud B 640, while another set of user interfaces and processes substantially similar to the user interface and process of cloud C can be presented to users accessing cloud A 610 from cloud C 660. This is done to simplify and thus enhance the user's experience of accessing services 614 of Cloud A 610 from other clouds.

[0166] As another example, each cloud environment typically includes an identity management system configured to provide security for the cloud environment. The identity management system is configured to protect resources in the cloud environment, including resources provided by the CSP and resources of subscribing cloud customers deployed in the cloud environment. Functions performed by the identity management system include, for example, managing identity credentials (e.g., usernames, passwords, etc.) associated with subscribing customers and associated users of the cloud, using identity credentials to regulate user access to cloud resources and services based on permissions / access policies configured for the cloud environment, and other functions. Different clouds may use different identity management systems and associated technologies. For example, the identity management system and associated processes in cloud A 610 may be completely different from the identity management system and associated processes in cloud B 640, which in turn may be completely different from the identity management system and associated processes in cloud C 660. In some embodiments, despite differences in identity management systems and associated processes between different cloud environments, the techniques described herein enable users associated with customers of a first cloud to access cloud services provided by different clouds using the same identity credentials associated with customers and users in the first cloud.

[0167] For example, in Figure 6 In the embodiment depicted in , cloud B 640 provided by CSP B may include an identity management system that assigns or distributes identity credentials to its subscribing customers and associated users, such as customer B1 646-1 and associated user 648-1. These identity credentials are associated with a lease created for customer B1 646-1 in cloud B 640. In certain embodiments, the MEI 622 provided by cloud A 610 enables user 648-1 associated with cloud B customer B1 646-1 to access services from service A 614 in cloud A 610 using identity credentials associated with user 648-1 and customer B1 646-1 in cloud B 640. This greatly enhances the user experience for user 648-1, as they do not have to create new identity credentials specific to cloud A 610 simply to access services 614 in cloud A 610. The MEI 622 facilitates such access.

[0168] As an example, customer B1 of cloud B 640 may select to use a service, such as database as a service (DBaaS), from a set of services 614 provided by cloud A 610. In response to this selection, MEI 622 causes a link 670 to be automatically created between cloud A 610 and cloud B 640 to enable user 648-1 associated with customer B1 646-1 to use the DBaaS service provided by cloud A 610. The automatic setup of link 670 is facilitated by MEI 622. After the link 670 is set up, user 668-1 may use the DBaaS service in cloud A 610 via cloud B 640. As part of using this service, user 668-1 may send a request to create a database resource to cloud A 610 via cloud B 640. In response, CSPI_A 612 may create the requested database in cloud A 610. In some embodiments, the created database may be provisioned in a virtual network (e.g., a virtual cloud network or VCN) created for customer B1 in cloud A 610 and accessible to user 668-1 via cloud B 640. User 668-1 may then send requests from cloud B 640 to cloud A 610 to use the provisioned database. These requests may include, for example, requests to write data to the database, update data stored in the database, delete data in the database, delete a database, create an additional database, and the like. In some use cases, these requests may originate from user 668-1 via cloud B 640 or from a service 644 provided by cloud B 640. In this manner, the MEI 622 provided by cloud A 610 enables users associated with customers of different clouds provided by different CSPs to seamlessly access services provided by cloud A 610.

[0169] Figure 6 The distributed environment 600 depicted in the foregoing is merely an example and is not intended to unduly limit the scope of the claimed embodiments. Many variations, substitutions, and modifications are possible. For example, in alternative embodiments, the distributed environment 600 may have more or fewer cloud environments. The cloud environment may also have more or fewer systems and components, or may have different configurations or arrangements of systems and components. Figure 6 The systems and components depicted in the can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the corresponding system, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., on a memory device).

[0170] Multi-Cloud Control Plane (MCCP)

[0171] Figure 7 Depicted is a high-level architecture of a multi-cloud infrastructure that interconnects two different cloud environments, each provided by a cloud service provider, according to some embodiments. Figure 7 As shown in FIG. 7 , a high-level architecture 700 includes a first cloud environment provided by a first cloud service provider (e.g., OCI) 710 and a second cloud environment provided by a second cloud service provider 720 (e.g., AWS). The first cloud environment 710 includes a multi-cloud infrastructure that provides the ability to deliver services of the first cloud environment to users of other cloud environments (e.g., the second cloud environment 720). Specifically, as will be described below, the multi-cloud infrastructure includes a multi-cloud control plane (MCCP) 712 and a multi-cloud network data plane (MCNDP) 716, which provide users with services (e.g., PaaS services) for accessing / managing the first cloud environment from another cloud environment.

[0172] The multi-cloud infrastructure provides a user experience that is as close as possible to the user's native cloud environment (e.g., the second cloud environment 720), while providing simple integration between cloud environments. Note that the MCCP 712 and the MCNDP 716 are components of the multi-cloud infrastructure that are deployed (and managed) by the first cloud service provider in the first cloud environment 710. In some embodiments, the multi-cloud infrastructure includes another component (i.e., a multi-cloud service account 726A) that is deployed in the second cloud environment 720 and managed by the first cloud service provider.

[0173] According to some embodiments, the second cloud environment 720 includes a customer account 721 and an account of the first cloud service provider (referred to herein as a multi-cloud account or multi-cloud service account 726A). Note that the second cloud environment 720 may also include a second cloud portal (not shown) that forms a centralized access point where customers of the second environment 720 can log in and manage their native cloud deployments and instances. The second cloud portal may provide options for monitoring and operating services provided by the second cloud infrastructure. According to some embodiments, the second cloud environment 720 includes a provisioning module 722, a monitoring module 724, and an identity system 723, which includes an identity module 723A and an access control module 723B (i.e., also referred to herein as an identity and access management (IAM) module). In addition, included in the customer account 721 is a customer's virtual private cloud (VPC) 725A, which may host one or more computing instances 725B. The identity module 723A is configured to perform tasks such as creating a set of one or more roles (and associated policies, permissions, etc. corresponding to the respective roles) for one or more users of the second cloud environment 720. In some embodiments, the access control module 723B acts as a user directory for the second cloud environment. Specifically, the access control module 723B can be configured to create a user pool and perform functions such as adding user registration, login, and access control to web and mobile applications.

[0174] The provisioning module 722 corresponds to the service provided by the second cloud environment 720, which enables users to model and manage infrastructure resources in an automated and secure manner. For example, using the provisioning module 722, developers can define and provision infrastructure resources using infrastructure as code templates. In other words, the provisioning module 722 automates the prerequisite settings for resources in the customer account in the second cloud environment 720. As another example, the provisioning module 722 can also be configured to set prerequisite resources that allow components of the first cloud environment to access resources in the customer account in the second cloud environment. According to certain embodiments, this is achieved by allowing the multi-cloud service account 726A to access resources in the customer account 721, for example, allowing the multi-cloud service account to be peered with the customer account, allowing components of the multi-cloud infrastructure (e.g., observability adapters for publishing metrics in the second cloud environment, etc.). The monitoring module 724 enables monitoring of the entire stack (e.g., applications, infrastructure, networks, and services), and uses alarms, logs, and event data to perform automated actions. The monitoring module 724 can also use a dashboard (e.g., in a GUI) to visually depict one or more metric data obtained from the first cloud environment.

[0175] Multi-cloud service account 726A includes a virtual private cloud 726B, which hosts a transit gateway and a direct connection component. The direct connection component is a networking component that provides an alternative to using the Internet to utilize the cloud services of the second cloud environment. Direct connections enable customers to establish a low-latency, secure, and private connection with the second cloud environment for workloads that require higher speeds or lower latency than the Internet. The transit gateway is a networking hub that can be used to interconnect VPCs and on-premises networks. In some embodiments, the transit gateway in the multi-cloud service account 726A is used to peer (i.e., communicatively coupled) with a customer account 721 in the second cloud environment 720.

[0176] The first cloud environment 710 includes the MCCP 712, the customer tenancy 714, and the MCNDP 716. As previously described, the MCCP 712 and the MCNDP 716 are parts of a multi-cloud infrastructure that provide users of other cloud environments (e.g., the second cloud environment 720) with access to services provided by the first cloud environment 710, where the user experience is as close as possible to that of the user's native cloud environment, while providing simple integration between the cloud environments.

[0177] The first cloud environment 710 also includes a multi-cloud console 750 (different from the second cloud portal) that allows authenticated users in the second cloud infrastructure 720 to perform control plane operations on resources of the first cloud infrastructure 710 exposed via the multi-cloud infrastructure. In other words, the multi-cloud console 750 forms a gateway for users of the second cloud environment 720 to be able to access resources deployed in the first cloud environment 710. It should be appreciated that the user 705 can issue requests (e.g., CRUD requests) for resources provided by the first cloud infrastructure directly from the multi-cloud console 750.

[0178] The MCCP 712 included in the first cloud environment includes a plurality of microservices, such as an agent module 712A, a platform service module 712B, and an adapter pool 712C. The adapter pool 712C includes a cloud link adapter, a database (DB) adapter, a network adapter, an observability adapter, and a support adapter.

[0179] Each adapter included in the adapter pool 712C is responsible for exposing a unique set of underlying resources (provided by the first cloud environment) to users of other cloud environments (e.g., the second cloud environment). Specifically, each adapter in the adapter pool 712C maps to a specific product or resource supplied by the first cloud infrastructure. In some embodiments, it is noted that the actual resources can be created by the native control plane (not shown) of the first cloud infrastructure. The native control plane of the first cloud environment provides management and orchestration across cloud environments. Configuration baselines can be set here, user and role access can be provided, and applications can reside so that they can be executed with related services. For example, with respect to Database as a Service (DBaaS), the DBaaS control plane included in the native control plane of the first cloud environment is configured to instantiate Exa database resources in the customer lease 714 of the first cloud environment.

[0180] The request issued by user 705 at multi-cloud console 750 is routed to proxy module 712A of MCCP. Note that proxy module 712A processes incoming requests to perform authentication and access control. Each request includes a token associated with a user account in the second cloud infrastructure (described below). The proxy module extracts the token and verifies the token with access control module 723B (i.e., the identity provider system of the second cloud environment). Upon successful verification, proxy module 712A can check the role (i.e., privilege set) associated with the user. Note that a role can be associated with one or more tasks / operations that the role is allowed to perform.

[0181] According to one embodiment, the proxy module 712A is responsible for authenticating incoming requests from the MCCP and authorizing whether the user is allowed to perform the requested operation based on the role associated with the token. In some embodiments, the proxy module 712A can perform the above-mentioned authentication process by utilizing a custom authentication feature of a service platform (SPLAT) associated with the first cloud infrastructure. It should be recognized that, broadly speaking, SPLAT is an infrastructure that facilitates the delivery of various cloud services provided by cloud service providers. SPLAT accepts incoming requests and forwards them to the proxy module 712A, which further parses the incoming requests to determine the authorization decision and returns a success or failure message to SPLAT. When successful, SPLAT can direct the request to the routing module, which directs the request to the appropriate adapter in the adapter pool, and when failed, SPLAT returns an error response directly to the caller.

[0182] According to one embodiment, the proxy module 712A accepts a pre-authentication request from the service platform (i.e., SPLAT) of the first cloud environment and routes the request to an appropriate adapter based on the path information contained in the incoming request. In some implementations, the proxy module may extract an identifier corresponding to a provider of the service (from the incoming request) and route the request to an appropriate adapter in the adapter pool 712C.

[0183] The cloud link adapter included in the MCCP 712 is responsible for handling lifecycle operations of resources provided by the first cloud environment. The cloud link adapter is configured to create a mapping (or a relationship created during the registration process) between the user's account in the second cloud environment and the user's corresponding lease / account in the first cloud infrastructure. In other words, the cloud link adapter generates a mapping of a first identifier associated with the user's lease in the first cloud environment and a second identifier associated with the user's account in the second cloud environment.

[0184] In some embodiments, the cloud link adapter performs a conversion between an external cloud identifier (e.g., a second identifier associated with a user's account in a second cloud environment) and a first identifier (associated with a user's lease in a first cloud environment) to enable operations through the MCCP to be mapped to appropriate underlying resources in the first cloud environment. In some embodiments, the cloud link adapter generates a data object to store the above-mentioned mapping information. In addition, the cloud link adapter also generates a resource-principal associated with the data object. One or more permissions are assigned to the resource principal based on the token (and its associated role) included in the request. The user implements access to downstream services provided by the first cloud environment from the second cloud infrastructure based on the resource principal. The cloud link adapter can store the data object and the associated resource principal in the root compartment of the user's lease in the first cloud infrastructure. Alternatively or additionally, the cloud link adapter can also locally persist the data object and the resource principal on the platform module 712B of the multi-cloud infrastructure so that other adapters included in the multi-cloud infrastructure can seamlessly access them.

[0185] The network adapter (also referred to as a network link adapter) is responsible for creating a network link (i.e., a communication link / channel) between the customer account 721 (in the second cloud environment) and the corresponding customer lease / account (in the first cloud environment) 714. According to some embodiments, the network link adapter obtains a token (from the platform module 712B) and creates (1) a first peer relationship between the MCNDP 716 and the customer lease 714 (in the first cloud environment), and (2) a second peer relationship between the customer account 721 and a multi-cloud service account 726A of the first cloud service provider 717 included in the second cloud environment (in the second cloud environment).

[0186] The MCNDP 716 in the first cloud environment 710 includes a fast connection and a hub and spoke VCN that supplies a network connection to be established with a customer lease 714 in the first cloud environment (e.g., from an on-premises location, from an external cloud environment). On the other hand, a transit gateway included in a multi-cloud service account is peered with a customer account in a second cloud environment. A network adapter can configure an interconnect 719 to communicatively couple the two cloud environments. Specifically, on one end, the interconnect is coupled with a direct connection (located in the multi-cloud service account 726A), and on the other end, the interconnect is coupled with a fast connection in the MCDP. It should be appreciated that the fast connection (included in the first cloud environment) and the direct connection included in the second cloud environment can be co-located in the same region. In addition, after the network link is formed between the two cloud environments, applications executed in a customer account (e.g., in a customer VPC in the second cloud environment) can access resources, such as Exa database resources deployed in the customer lease 714 in the first cloud environment. It should be appreciated that the network link communicatively couples the user's lease in the first cloud environment with the user's account in the second cloud environment.

[0187] like Figure 7 As shown in , the observability module (included in the adapter pool 712C) is configured to mirror or forward (e.g., publish) logs, metrics, and other performance parameters related to resources deployed in a customer tenant in the first cloud environment to, for example, a dashboard included in the monitoring module 724 included in the second cloud environment for further processing. According to some embodiments, the platform service module 712B included in the multi-cloud infrastructure is configured to store credentials associated with services of the first cloud environment provided to users of the second cloud infrastructure. The platform service module 712B provides, for example, tokens / resource principals to different adapters included in the adapter pool 712C so that the adapters can communicate with the native control plane of the first cloud infrastructure. According to some embodiments, the platform service module 712B exposes APIs called by different adapters to perform tasks such as the following:

[0188] Sell ​​the adapter a minimally scoped access token (issued by the second cloud infrastructure). For example, a network adapter requires an access token to perform the network peer operations described above.

[0189] Provide a resource principal that the adapter will use to call a downstream service to create a resource in the customer tenancy of the first cloud infrastructure.

[0190] Trigger observability data from the first cloud infrastructure to the second cloud infrastructure

[0191] Replication of (logs, metrics, events).

[0192] As previously described, the adapter pool 712C includes multiple adapters, each of which is responsible for exposing a unique set of underlying resources of the first cloud infrastructure to users of the second cloud infrastructure, that is, each adapter maps to a specific product or resource supplied by the first cloud environment. For example, the Exa database adapter acts as an agent for users of the second cloud infrastructure to create and utilize Exa database resources. Exa database is a preconfigured combination of hardware and software that provides an infrastructure for executing a database. According to some embodiments, Exa database includes a set of resources: (a) Exadata infrastructure (i.e., hardware), (b) VM cloud cluster, (c) container database, and (d) pluggable database. According to some embodiments, the multi-cloud infrastructure provides (for users of the second cloud infrastructure) the ability to analyze each level of the stacked infrastructure. Moreover, MCCP provides users with the flexibility of simply issuing a create command for the workflow (via the multi-cloud console 750), after which MCCP automatically creates the various resources at each level of the stack. It should be recognized that although Figure 7 The adapter pool 712C depicted in FIG. 7 includes five different adapters, but this in no way limits the scope of the MCCP architecture 700. The MCCP architecture may include other adapters, such as specialized adapters specifically for use with a particular cloud service provider based on the requirements of the cloud service provider.

[0193] In operation, when user 705 accesses multi-cloud console 750 (e.g., for the first time) to perform a registration operation (e.g., for a multi-cloud service), user 705 is redirected to provisioning module 722 (included in second cloud environment 720). The user can perform a login operation for the second cloud environment, i.e., using credentials associated with the second cloud environment. After successfully logging into the second cloud environment, provisioning module 722 performs prerequisite setup of resources in the customer account in the second cloud environment. Note that the provisioning of prerequisite resources in the second cloud environment can include creating roles (and associated policies) and setting up user pools for identity system 723.

[0194] The provisioning process allows, for example, a multi-cloud service account in the second cloud environment to access resources in a customer account in the second cloud environment. In doing so, resources in the first cloud environment 710 can perform certain actions with respect to the second cloud environment. For example, an observability adapter / module (included in adapter pool 712C) can transmit metrics associated with resources deployed in the first cloud environment to a monitoring module of the second cloud environment. As another example of the provisioning process, a network adapter (included in adapter pool 712C) can attach a transit gateway to a customer VPC in the second cloud environment, i.e., peer in the second cloud environment.

[0195] According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the identity system 723 of the second cloud environment 720 includes features that allow users or services to temporarily assume permissions of different roles (referred to herein as "assuming roles"). Such features enable cross-account access or permission delegation within or outside the same account. When a user or service assumes a role, they receive a set of temporary security credentials, which may include access keys, secret access keys, and session tokens. These credentials can then be used to make API calls or access resources (of the second cloud environment) based on the permissions granted to assume the role. Therefore, as part of the provisioning process, a multi-cloud service account can be configured to assume certain roles, which the multi-cloud service account can use to gain access to customer accounts in the second cloud environment.

[0196] When the user successfully logs in to the second cloud environment 720 and completes the above-mentioned provisioning process, an access token may be issued to the user. The token is then forwarded to the multi-cloud console 750, which in turn forwards the token to the MCCP 712. The agent module 712A included in the MCCP 712 performs user authentication as described above, and after the user successfully obtains authorization (e.g., checks whether the user has sufficient privileges to issue a specific type of request), forwards the request to the appropriate adapter included in the adapter pool 712C to execute the user's request.

[0197] Go to Fig. 8A , which depicts a detailed architecture 800 of a network link configuration according to some embodiments. Fig. 8A As shown in , the network link communicatively couples the region of the second cloud environment 805 with the region of the first cloud environment 835. The region of the second cloud environment 805 may include one or more customer virtual private clouds (VPCs). Fig. 8A 800 includes two customer VPCs, namely, Customer 1 VPC 801 and Customer 2 VPC 802. Accordingly, a portion of the second cloud environment 805 hosting customer VPCs is represented as customer domain 850A. Similarly, a region of the first cloud environment 835 may include one or more customer VCNs (i.e., customer virtual networks). For example, a region of the first cloud environment 835 includes two customer VCNs, namely, Customer 1 VCN 831 and Customer 2 VCN 832. Accordingly, a portion of the first cloud environment 835 hosting customer VCNs is represented as customer domain 850C.

[0198] According to some embodiments, a multi-cloud network infrastructure (MCNI) domain 850B, i.e., a network link, communicatively couples a pair of customer virtual networks. Fig. 8A 805) is communicatively coupled with a customer 1 VCN 831 (included in a region of a first cloud environment 835). In a similar manner, a customer 2 VPC 802 (included in a region of a second cloud environment 805) is communicatively coupled with a customer 2 VCN 832 (included in a region of a first cloud environment 835). Note that MCNI domain 850B corresponds to a network link domain and is located between dashed lines 860 and 870. More specifically, MCNI domain 850B includes a first portion located in a region of the second cloud environment 805 and a second portion located in a region of the first cloud environment 835. It should be appreciated that MCNI domain 850B is deployed and controlled by a cloud service provider of the first cloud environment 835 to communicatively couple a region of the first cloud environment 835 with a region of the second cloud environment 805 so that users of the second cloud environment 805 can utilize services provided by the first cloud environment 805.

[0199] In some embodiments, each pair of customer virtual networks (e.g., Customer 1 VPC 801 in a region of the second cloud environment 805 and Customer 1 VCN 831 in a region of the first cloud environment 835) is communicatively coupled using (i) one or more network resources deployed in the second cloud environment and (ii) multiple virtual networks (referred to herein as link-enabled virtual networks) deployed in the first cloud environment by a multi-cloud network (MCN) service. For example, the network resources deployed or instantiated in the first cloud environment include a transit gateway 807 and a direct connect gateway 808, each gateway being shared by a different customer of the second cloud environment, i.e., transit gateway 807 handles traffic leased by multiple customers included in the region of the second cloud environment 805. Link-enabled virtual network 823 (labeled as Spoke 1 VCN) is deployed in a region of the first cloud environment 835 and is associated with Customer 1 VCN 831. In a similar manner, Customer 2 VCN 832 is associated with a different link-enabled virtual network 824 (labeled as Spoke 2 VCN). Thus, in Fig. 8A In the architecture, each pair of customer virtual networks is associated with at least one link-enabled virtual network (deployed in the first cloud environment) and one or more network resources (deployed in the second cloud environment).

[0200] The region of the first cloud environment 835 includes a hub VCN 822, which is shared by virtual cloud networks of different customers included in the first cloud environment, that is, the hub VCN 822 handles traffic of multiple customer VCNs included in the region of the first cloud environment 835. Fig. 8A As shown in FIG. 1 , a region of the second cloud environment 805 is communicatively connected to a region of the first cloud environment 835 via a high-bandwidth network interconnect 815 (also referred to herein as a high-bandwidth interconnect). In one embodiment, one end of the high-bandwidth network interconnect 815 is coupled to a dynamic routing gateway associated with a hub VCN 822 in the first cloud environment 835, and the other end is coupled to a direct-connect gateway 808 included in the second cloud environment 805. A detailed description of configuring an end-to-end network path between a customer 1 VPC 801 (included in a region of the second cloud environment 805) and a customer 1 VCN 831 (included in a region of the first cloud environment 835) will be provided below.

[0201] like Fig. 8A As shown in FIG. 8 , transit gateway 807 is instantiated in multi-cloud infrastructure portion 850B included in second cloud environment 805. Transit gateway 807 establishes direct connections with each customer VPC included in customer domain 850A. These connections are referred to herein as VPC attachments. For example, Fig. 8A As shown in , transit gateway 807 establishes a first VPC attachment (labeled as VPC attachment 1) with customer 1 VPC 801, and establishes a second VPC attachment (labeled as VPC attachment 2) with customer 2 VPC 802. Each customer VPC maintains a customer VPC routing table. For example, customer 1 VPC 801 maintains routing table 801A, and customer 2 VPC 802 maintains routing table 802A. In some embodiments, transit gateway 807 can advertise its address (e.g., IP address) to each customer VPC. Each customer VPC, in turn, can create an entry in its associated customer routing table indicating that if a client in the customer VPC has traffic (e.g., a data packet) to send to the first cloud environment 835, then the traffic should be directed to transit gateway 807. For example, as Fig. 8A As shown in , customer routing table 801A includes the entry "192.168.0.0 / 16→TGW". This indicates that traffic originating from customer VPC 801 and intended for a customer VCN contained in the first cloud environment 835 (e.g., resource 831A deployed in customer 1 VCN 831) and with an address of "192.168.0.0 / 16" can be directed to transit gateway 807 for delivery.

[0202] According to some embodiments, transit gateway 807 is communicatively coupled to direct connect gateway 808 (at Fig. 8A 801 and Customer 2 VPC 802). Note that traffic from different customer VPCs (e.g., Customer 1 VPC 801 and Customer 2 VPC 802) share transit gateway 807. Moreover, by utilizing routing tables and establishing tunnels (as described below), traffic from different customers traversing the transit gateway is isolated (e.g., separated). According to some embodiments, transit gateway 807 implements customer traffic isolation by establishing a unique tunnel for each customer VPC-customer VCN connection. In one embodiment, the transit gateway establishes different tunnels based on the Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) protocol. Specifically, the transit gateway establishes a first tunnel (corresponding to Customer 1 VPC 801 in the second cloud environment 805 that desires to establish a connection with Customer 1 VCN 831 in the first cloud environment 835), which is transmitted as Tunnel 1 through the direct connect attachment (from transit gateway 807 to direct connect gateway 808 and is referred to as connection attachment 1).

[0203] The transit gateway 807 maintains a table (e.g., a mapping table) for each connection attachment (i.e., tunnel) that includes the unique source-destination address corresponding to the GRE tunnel and other metadata information related to the BGP route. Fig. 8A As shown in , transit gateway 807 maintains a mapping table 828 corresponding to connection attachment 1. As shown, table 828 includes a unique source-destination IP address pair (e.g., 100.100.0.2←→100.101.0.2) that corresponds to the encapsulation source (e.g., the IP address of the encapsulator included in transit gateway 807, and the destination address (e.g., of a local virtual network adapter (LVNA), such as LVNA 823A included in the first cloud environment) of the connection attachment.

[0204] In a similar manner, transit gateway 807 establishes a second tunnel (corresponding to the Customer 2 VPC in the second cloud environment that desires to establish a connection with the Customer 2 VCN in the first cloud environment) that is transported over a direct connect attachment (from transit gateway 807 to direct connect gateway 808 and referred to as connect attachment 2) as Tunnel 2. In other words, transit gateway 807 implements network isolation by encapsulating traffic received from different VPCs in the second cloud environment. The encapsulated traffic (i.e., the tunnel) is routed from transit gateway 807 to direct connect gateway 808 and ultimately traverses high-bandwidth interconnect 815, which communicatively couples the second cloud environment with the first cloud environment.

[0205] Note that for each VPC attachment established by transit gateway 807 and a particular customer VPC (e.g., Customer 1 VPC 801), transit gateway 807 maintains a VPC attachment routing table. Fig. 8A As shown in , VPC attachment 1 (i.e., the attachment that couples transit gateway 807 to customer VPC 801) is associated with customer 1 VPC attachment routing table 827. Customer 1 VPC attachment routing table 827 includes an entry "192.168.0.0 / 16->connect attachment 1", which indicates that traffic originating from customer VPC 801 and intended for customer VCN 831 (in the first cloud environment) is configured to be delivered over the direct connect attachment as tunnel 1. Note that a similar VPC attachment routing table may be maintained at transit gateway 807 associated with customer 2 VPC 802. Additionally, as shown in FIG. Fig. 8A As shown in , transit gateway 807 maintains a routing table for each connection attachment, e.g., customer 1 connection attachment routing table 829. Such a table essentially includes an entry indicating that traffic received in customer domain 850A (e.g., from a first cloud environment) and intended to be directed to customer 1 VPC (e.g., address 10.0.0.0 / 16) is to be delivered to customer 1 VPC 801 via connection attachment 1 (i.e., tunnel 1).

[0206] According to some embodiments, encapsulated traffic traverses interconnect 815 and is received by hub VCN 822, which is shared between virtual cloud networks of different customers contained in first cloud environment 835. Encapsulated traffic received by a virtual network interface card (VNIC) (e.g., VNIC 822A) contained in hub VCN 1122 is forwarded to a link-enabled virtual network 823 (labeled as spoke VCN) contained in a region of first cloud environment 835. Link-enabled virtual network 823 includes a pair of virtual network adapters 823A (labeled as local virtual network adapters (LVNA)), each of which is configured to decapsulate encapsulated traffic received from VNIC 822A contained in hub VCN 1122. In addition, as shown in FIG. Fig. 8A As shown in FIG. 8 , a pair of virtual network adapters 823A included in a link-enabled virtual network 823 of a first cloud environment 835 transmits decapsulated traffic to a customer 1 VCN 831 (e.g., resource 831A deployed in customer 1 VCN 831) via a dynamic routing gateway (DRG) attachment associated with the customer VCN. Note that the hub VCN (e.g., the second link-enabled virtual network) and the first link-enabled virtual network (e.g., spoke VCN 823) can be assigned unique classless inter-domain routing IP address spaces.

[0207] In this manner, an end-to-end network link is established between a customer VPC (i.e., a customer account) in a region of the second cloud environment 805 and a customer VCN (customer account) 831 in a region of the first cloud environment 835 via link-enabled virtual networks (e.g., hub VCN 822 and link-enabled virtual network 823 (in the second cloud environment)) and network resources (e.g., transit gateway 807 and direct connect gateway 808 included in the second cloud environment). It should be appreciated that a network link may be established between customer 2 VPC 802 (in a region of the second cloud environment 805) and customer 2 VCN 832 (in a region of the first cloud environment 835) in a manner similar to that described above with respect to the network link established between customer 1 VPC and customer 1 VCN. Furthermore, note that while Fig. 8A A single transit gateway 807 and a single direct connection gateway 808 are depicted, but this in no way limits the scope of the present disclosure. For example, a pair of transit gateways and direct connection gateways can be instantiated for a fixed number of customers (e.g., 500 customers). For a larger number of customers, additional transit gateways and direct connection gateway pairs can be deployed in a second cloud environment.

[0208] Figure 8B An exemplary flow chart illustrating a process of establishing a network link in accordance with certain embodiments is depicted. Figure 8B The processes depicted in the can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the corresponding system, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., on a memory device). Figure 8B The methods presented in and described below are intended to be illustrative and non-limiting. Figure 8B Describe various processing steps that occur in a specific order or sequence, but this is not intended to be limiting. In some alternative embodiments, these steps can be performed in a different order, or some steps can also be performed in parallel.

[0209] The process of creating an end-to-end network link between a first cloud environment and a second cloud environment begins at step 860, which includes instantiating / deploying a first gateway and a second gateway in the second cloud environment. Fig. 8A , deploying a transit gateway 807 (e.g., a first gateway) and a direct connection gateway 808 (e.g., a second gateway) in the second cloud environment. Note that the first gateway is directly connected to the second gateway via a communication link (referred to herein as a direct connection attachment or a connection link). In step 862, the process establishes a connection (e.g., a direct connection attachment) between the first gateway and a second virtual network included in the second cloud environment. For example, referring to Fig. 8A , the transit gateway establishes VPC attachment 1 with customer 1 VPC 801 in the second cloud environment.

[0210] In step 864, a multi-cloud control plane (e.g., Figure 7 MCCP 712) receives a first virtual network (e.g., Fig. 8A The customer 1 VCN 831) is connected to the second virtual network in the second cloud environment (for example, Fig. 8A 801). Note that the first virtual network in the first cloud environment was previously created to enable users associated with the customer tenancy in the second cloud environment 805 to access one or more services provided in the first cloud environment 835.

[0211] Thereafter, the process proceeds to step 866, where the first gateway encapsulates the traffic received from the second virtual network to generate encapsulated traffic. The encapsulated traffic is transmitted by the first gateway to the second gateway via the direct connection attachment. In addition, in step 868, the second gateway forwards the received encapsulated traffic to the link-enabled virtual network included in the first cloud environment. Note that such traffic between the two cloud environments is transmitted via a high-bandwidth interconnect (e.g., Fig. 8A Furthermore, note that a link-enabled virtual network can communicate with a spoke VCN (e.g., VCN 822) that receives encapsulated traffic from a hub VCN (e.g., VCN 822, which can be considered another link-enabled virtual network). Fig. 8A VCN 823 in.

[0212] The process then moves to step 870, where a link-enabled virtual network (e.g., Fig. 8A In step 872, the link-enabled virtual network in the first cloud environment transmits the decapsulated traffic to the first virtual network in the first cloud environment (e.g., VCN 823 in the first cloud environment) (e.g., via the LVNA). In addition, in step 872, the link-enabled virtual network in the first cloud environment transmits the decapsulated traffic to the first virtual network in the first cloud environment (e.g., VCN 823 in the first cloud environment) (e.g., via the LVNA). Fig. 8A In this way, the multi-cloud infrastructure of the present invention configures high-performance, high-availability, and low-latency network links between different customer virtual networks.

[0213] Fig. 9A Depicted is an architecture 900 for establishing a network link to provision services via a private endpoint in accordance with certain embodiments. Specifically, Fig. 9A Describes the architecture of a network link model (referred to herein as a VPC private endpoint model) for providing a specific set of private services (e.g., SaaS services such as ADB-S) that are provisioned by a cloud environment (e.g., a first cloud environment) to customers of another cloud environment (e.g., a second cloud environment). Note that the VPC private endpoint model provisions private services such as ADB-S that are not hosted in a VCN but are private services of the first cloud environment associated with their own public / private IP addresses. The goal here is to establish an interconnection between the two cloud environments (e.g., Fig. 8A The interconnect 815) provides access to such services.

[0214] Fig. 9A Depicted are regions of a first cloud environment 935 and a second cloud environment 905 interconnected via a high bandwidth interconnect 915. Fig. 8A As described above, when setting up a network link between a region of the first cloud environment 935 and a region of the second cloud environment 905, network resources are deployed in a multi-cloud network infrastructure domain 950B, which is controlled by a cloud service provider of the first cloud environment 935. The network resources deployed in the multi-cloud network infrastructure domain 950B include: (i) a transit gateway 907 and a direct connection gateway 908 deployed in a region of the second cloud environment 905, and (ii) a link-enabled virtual network (e.g., hub VCN 931) deployed in a region of the first cloud environment 935. Fig. 9A As depicted in , the two regions are communicatively coupled via interconnect 915 .

[0215] like Fig. 9A As shown in , a region of a first cloud environment 935 may include one or more private services (e.g., SaaS services such as autonomous database services) 937 that exist in a customer domain 950C in a region of the first cloud environment 935. Note that, for convenience, such services may be represented by endpoints referred to herein as service endpoints. Such services may be associated with their own public / private IP addresses. Customers of a second cloud environment may desire to utilize these services. For example, customer VPC 1 901 and customer VPC 2 902 (included in customer domain 950A of a region of a second cloud environment 905) may desire to utilize SaaS services. Described below is a framework that enables customers of a second cloud environment to utilize private services provided by a first cloud environment.

[0216] To provide access to each SaaS service, one or more backend proxies 931A are deployed in a link-enabled virtual network (i.e., hub VCN 931) contained in the first cloud environment. According to some embodiments, each of the one or more backend proxies corresponds to a packet processor for a specific private service provided by the first cloud environment. The proxy serves as a backend for a network load balancer (deployed in the second cloud environment) and is configured to perform network address translation (NAT) on traffic directed to / from SaaS services 937 in the first cloud environment.

[0217] In the portion of MCNI domain 950B contained in the region of second cloud environment 905, for each service to be used, a pair of: (i) network load balancer 906A and (ii) private link module 906B are instantiated to communicatively couple with the customer VPC (i.e., customer VPC 901) on one side and transit gateway 907 on the other side. Note that in some embodiments, network load balancer 906A is deployed in a multi-cloud service account (e.g., Figure 7 726A), which is coupled to the private link module 906B at a first end and to the transit gateway 907 at a second end (i.e., via the multi-cloud service account 726A as described above with reference to Fig. 8A VPC attachment as described above).

[0218] In addition, in each customer's VPC, a private endpoint 903 (referred to herein as an access endpoint) is deployed, which communicatively couples the customer's VPC to a private link module 906B. The access endpoint may correspond to a virtual network interface card (VNIC). Thus, different VNICs (from different customer leases) are communicatively coupled to the private link module 906B. The private link module 906B forwards traffic originating from different customer VPCs to a network load balancer 906A. The back end of the network load balancer 906A is communicatively coupled to one or more proxies 931A (in the hub VCN 931) through a shared interconnect 915 formed between the two cloud environments.

[0219] Each backend proxy 931A is configured to perform a NAT operation, where the destination IP address (e.g., the IP address of the backend proxy 931A) is converted to the public / private IP address of the SaaS service 937 (e.g., a service endpoint). Traffic from the backend proxy 931A is directed to the service gateway 935, which routes the traffic to the public / private IP address associated with the SaaS service 937. The network load balancer 906B multiplexes traffic received from different customer VPCs (e.g., customer VPCs 901 and 902 in the second cloud environment) and directs the traffic (via a shared interconnect) to one or more backend proxies 931A. In addition, it is noted that a request to access a SaaS service (e.g., ADB-S) may include a connection string in the request. The connection string may uniquely identify a specific database that is requested to be accessed by a specific customer VPC. Therefore, based on the connection string included in the request, each request may be seamlessly directed to the appropriate database in the first cloud environment. In some embodiments, the SaaS service 937 (e.g., ADB-S database) provides access restrictions to resources by utilizing information contained in a header (e.g., a proxy protocol header (i.e., PPv2)). Specifically, the PPv2 header may include information corresponding to the source of the request, wherein the SaaS service may use such information to determine whether to grant access to the resource. In this manner, a shared private path may be established from a customer VPC in a second cloud environment to a private service provisioned in a first cloud environment.

[0220] Furthermore, it should be appreciated that a pair of network load balancers and private link modules (and corresponding backend proxies) may be deployed for each different type of service provisioned by SaaS service 937. Thus, for each private service that a customer VPC in the second cloud environment desires to utilize, a dedicated private endpoint (e.g., endpoint 903) may be deployed in each customer VPC in the second cloud environment. Furthermore, it should be appreciated that while multiple backend proxies (e.g., proxy 931A) corresponding to a particular private service are depicted (e.g., for redundancy), this is in no way intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Rather, private services may be implemented by different customer VPCs by utilizing a single backend proxy.

[0221] Fig. 9B An exemplary flow diagram illustrating a process of establishing a network link to access a service via a private endpoint in accordance with certain embodiments is depicted. Fig. 9B The processes depicted in the can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the corresponding system, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., on a memory device). Fig. 9B The methods presented in and described below are intended to be illustrative and non-limiting. Fig. 9B Describe various processing steps that occur in a specific order or sequence, but this is not intended to be limiting. In some alternative embodiments, these steps can be performed in a different order, or some steps can also be performed in parallel.

[0222] According to some embodiments, in order to access the service via the private endpoint, one or more resources are pre-provisioned in the first cloud environment and the second cloud environment, respectively. For example, a network load balancer is provisioned in the second cloud environment. The network load balancer can be deployed in a multi-cloud service account, such as Figure 7 In the multi-cloud service account 726A included in the second cloud environment depicted in FIG. Fig. 9A As shown in , a network load balancer 904 is provisioned in the second cloud environment. In addition, the pre-provisioning of resources also includes deploying one or more backend agents, such as packet processors, for a specific service in the first cloud environment. For example, Fig. 9A As shown in FIG. 1 , one or more backend agents 931A are deployed in a link-enabled virtual network of the first cloud environment, for example, in a hub VCN. It should be appreciated that in order to provide a framework for customers of the second cloud environment to access services provided by the first cloud environment, Fig. 9B The processing may include creating a network link between the first cloud environment and the second cloud environment, as previously described with reference to Figure 8B The pre-provisioning of resources is Fig. 9B 960 in FIG.

[0223] The process then begins at step 962, where a multi-cloud control plane (e.g., Figure 7 The MCCP 712 of the second cloud environment receives a request from a customer of the second cloud environment, wherein the request corresponds to a customer requesting access to a service (e.g., a SaaS service such as an autonomous database service) provided by the first cloud service provider in the first cloud environment. Note that private services such as SaaS services may not be hosted in a virtual cloud in the first cloud environment, but are associated with their own private / public IP addresses.

[0224] Additionally, in step 964, a private endpoint is established in each customer VPC of the second cloud environment. The private endpoint may correspond to a VNIC that provides connectivity to a specific service provisioned in the first cloud environment. Traffic associated with the private service is forwarded from the customer VPC to the network load balancer via the private endpoint (i.e., VNIC). In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. Fig. 9A As shown in , the private endpoints established in each customer VPC in the second cloud environment are configured to transmit traffic associated with a specific service to a private link module, which in turn forwards the traffic to a network load balancer.

[0225] In step 966, the network load balancer multiplexes traffic received from different customer VPCs in the second cloud environment and transmits the multiplexed traffic from the second cloud environment to the first cloud environment through the network link.

[0226] One or more proxies act as backends for the network load balancer and perform processing of traffic so that the processed traffic (via the service gateway) is directed to an IP address, such as a public IP address or a private IP address corresponding to the service. The processing performed by the backend proxy includes performing network address translation (NAT) on traffic directed to / from the SaaS service 937 in the first cloud environment. Specifically, the backend proxy can perform a NAT operation in which the destination IP address (e.g., the IP address of the backend proxy 931A) is converted to the public / private IP address of the SaaS service (step 968). In this way, via a private endpoint (established in a customer VPC in the second cloud environment), a network load balancer, and a backend proxy, customers of the second cloud environment can utilize (one or more) services provided by the first cloud environment, such as SaaS services.

[0227] Fig.10 An exemplary architecture for performing Domain Name System (DNS) resolution according to some embodiments is depicted. Specifically, Fig.10 Depicted is an architecture for performing DNS resolution in a multi-cloud environment. DNS resolution is the process of converting human-readable domain names into IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. Computers and other devices on the Internet communicate with each other using IP addresses, which are numeric values. However, it is impractical for users to remember these numeric addresses for each service. Fig.10 Provides a framework for performing DNS resolution in an efficient manner.

[0228] like Fig.10 As shown in FIG, a customer VPC 1001 included in the second cloud environment is communicatively coupled to a customer VCN 1041 in the first cloud environment. The coupling of these virtual networks is achieved via a transit gateway 1003, a direct connection gateway 1004, an interconnect 1050, and a link-enabled virtual network 1040, which are instantiated in the first cloud environment and the second cloud environment, respectively, as shown in FIG. Fig.10 Establishing network resources in the first cloud environment and the second cloud environment to enable the two different cloud environments to communicate is referred to herein as configuring a network link between the cloud environments. The details of configuring such a network link have been previously described with reference to Fig. 8A and Figure 8B Described.

[0229] According to some embodiments, as part of provisioning a network link, network resources are deployed in the customer VPC (in the second cloud environment) and the customer's VCN (in the first cloud environment) to enable DNS resolution. Fig.10 As shown in , customer VPC 1001 includes a pair of endpoints—denoted as an outbound endpoint and an inbound endpoint. In a similar manner, customer VCN 1041 includes another pair of endpoints—denoted as a forwarding endpoint and a listening endpoint. For ease of illustration, the resources deployed in customer VCN 1041 are depicted as Exa database resources. Fig.10 Also included in the framework is a first local DNS resolver 1042 (labeled as a VCN resolver) included in the first cloud environment and a second local DNS resolver 1002 (labeled as a VPC resolver) included in the second cloud environment.

[0230] According to some embodiments, in the event that a client (e.g., included in customer VPC 1001) desires to know how to resolve an Exa database fully qualified domain name (FDQN), the client may transmit a request to resolve the DNS to its local VPC resolver, i.e., resolver 1002. Since the domain name corresponds to an external resource (i.e., hosted in another cloud environment (first cloud environment)), the local resolver is unable to resolve such a DNS query. In response to resolver 1002 being unable to resolve the DNS query, a rule associated with the resolver may be triggered. For example, such a rule may indicate that the DNS query is forwarded to another resolver, such as DNS resolver 1042 associated with customer VCN 1041. As a result, the request is forwarded to a listening endpoint included in customer's VCN 1041 over a network link (established between the first cloud environment and the second cloud environment). In turn, the listening endpoint forwards the query to resolver 1042, which resolves the DNS to its corresponding IP address. It should be appreciated that DNS queries originating from the second cloud environment and directed to the first cloud environment (e.g., to resolver 1042 in the first cloud environment) are forwarded by the local resolver 1002 of the second cloud environment to an outbound endpoint included in customer VPC 1001. The outbound endpoint is configured to transmit the query to a listening endpoint included in customer VCN 1041. The listening endpoint in turn forwards the query to a resolver associated with the first cloud environment, i.e., resolver 1042, to process the query.

[0231] Furthermore, it should be recognized that, similar to the above case, Fig.10 The framework also provides reverse DNS lookup, for example, in the case where an Exa database resource in a first cloud environment attempts to communicate with a resource (e.g., block storage) in a second cloud environment. In this case, the forwarding endpoint (included in customer VCN 1041) can first forward the DNS request to its local resolver, i.e., resolver 1042, and when resolver 1042 cannot resolve such a query, the forwarding endpoint forwards the query to resolver 1002 (included in the second cloud environment) to obtain DNS resolution. Specifically, such a query is received at an inbound endpoint included in customer VPC 1001. The inbound endpoint forwards the received query to its local resolver, i.e., resolver 1002, to process the query. In this manner, Fig.10 The framework depicted in provides a fully integrated DNS forwarding mechanism that can be configured in both directions, namely, from a first cloud environment to a second cloud environment and from a second cloud environment to the first cloud environment.

[0232] Fig.11 Depicted is a schematic diagram illustrating deployment of resources by a multi-cloud infrastructure according to some embodiments. Fig.11 As shown in , the first cloud environment includes a multi-cloud console 1151, a service platform (SPLAT) 1152, an agent 1153, a cloud link adapter 1154, a database adapter 1155, and a platform 1156. When a user accesses the multi-cloud console 1151, in some embodiments, the user can be directed to the identity management system 1160 of the second cloud environment to perform a login operation for the second cloud environment. Note that after a successful login, the user is redirected back to the multi-cloud console 1151 along with a token (e.g., an access token). It should be appreciated that the user can use the multi-cloud console 1151 to issue commands to access, create, or update resources in the user's lease in the first cloud infrastructure. For ease of illustration, the following describes a scenario in which a user uses the multi-cloud console 1151 to issue a request to create a database resource (e.g., an Exa database resource).

[0233] The multi-cloud console 1151 provides multiple options, such as creating resources, accessing resources, updating resources, etc. These options can be provided to the user in the form of selectable icons (e.g., buttons) in the multi-cloud console 1151. When the user performs a selection (e.g., to create a resource), an API call to the service platform 1152 will be triggered. It should be appreciated that in some embodiments, the request made to the service platform 1151 can be a call such as a REST type call (or a POST call) that includes an authorization header that includes a token associated with the user in the second cloud infrastructure. Also included in the request is metadata information, including an account ID (of the second cloud environment), a resource name, a provider name, and the type of resource requested by the user.

[0234] The call including the token is further forwarded to the proxy module 1153, which performs authentication and access control operations. According to some embodiments, the proxy module 1153 performs the authentication operation by extracting the token included in the call. In some implementations, the proxy module 1153 verifies the token by comparing the signature (used to sign the request) with the publicly available signature of the second cloud infrastructure to ensure that the request originates from a valid customer associated with the second cloud infrastructure. In addition, the proxy module 1153 may also check the role (i.e., privilege) associated with the token, for example, whether the role corresponds to a DB administrator, etc. Based on the role, the proxy module 1153 may route the request to an appropriate adapter included in the MCCP framework, i.e., one of the adapters included in the adapter pool 712C, such as Figure 7 as shown in .

[0235] According to one embodiment, the proxy module 1153 compares the role (associated with the token) to a pre-configured list of roles published and assigned (as part of the API specification) for each adapter. For example, if the role associated with the token corresponds to "Exadata DB Administrator", then the request can be understood as a request to create an Exa database, and thus the request is forwarded to the database adapter 1155. In addition, according to some embodiments, the proxy module 1153 can analyze the information contained in the REST call, such as the provider ID, the requested resource type, etc., and based on the analyzed information, the proxy module 1153 can forward the request to the appropriate adapter.

[0236] In some embodiments, the request obtained by the proxy module 1153 may not contain information identifying the user's tenancy in the first cloud infrastructure where the resource is to be deployed. Therefore, the proxy module 1153 communicates with the cloud link adapter 1154 to obtain mapping information of the user account in the second cloud infrastructure to the user's tenancy in the first cloud infrastructure. If the mapping information exists, the proxy module 1153 obtains information related to the user's tenancy in the first cloud infrastructure and passes the information to the database adapter 1155. In this way, the database adapter 1155 knows the user's tenancy in the first cloud infrastructure where the resource is to be created / deployed. However, if the cloud link adapter 1154 determines that the mapping information does not exist, the proxy module 1153 can simply issue an "unauthorized access" message back to the user as a response to the request to create the database resource.

[0237] Note that in some embodiments, the cloud link adapter 1154 creates a data object (referred to herein as a cloud link resource object or link resource object) for storing metadata information identifying the two linked accounts. For example, the data object stores metadata information including a mapping of a first identifier associated with a lease (i.e., an account) in the first cloud infrastructure and a second identifier associated with a user account of the second cloud service provider. Such a mapping is referred to herein as a resource context. In addition, the cloud link adapter 1154 may also create a resource subject (referred to herein as a cloud link resource subject) associated with the resource context. The cloud link adapter 1154 may maintain data objects and resource subjects within the root compartment of the user lease in the first cloud infrastructure. In some embodiments, the cloud link adapter 1154 may also persist data objects and / or resource subjects locally in the platform 1156.

[0238] In some embodiments, the database adapter 1155 can obtain a resource principal that is locally persisted in the platform 1156. The database adapter 1155 can transmit a request (including the resource principal) to one or more downstream services included in the first cloud infrastructure to create resources in the user's lease in the first cloud infrastructure. In other words, the downstream services included in the first cloud infrastructure use the identity (i.e., the resource principal) obtained from the platform 1156 to create / deploy the required resources, such as an Exa database, in the user's lease in the first cloud infrastructure. When the user issues a request to create an Exa database, the user can intermittently poll the MCCP to obtain the status of the request. When the downstream services of the first cloud infrastructure create resources in the user's lease in the first cloud infrastructure, the MCCP can notify the user that the request was successfully completed.

[0239] Examples of cloud infrastructure

[0240] As noted above, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a specific type of cloud computing. IaaS can be configured to provide virtualized computing resources over a public network (e.g., the Internet). In the IaaS model, a cloud computing provider can host infrastructure components (e.g., servers, storage devices, network nodes (e.g., hardware), deployment software, platform virtualization (e.g., hypervisor layer), etc.). In some cases, IaaS providers can also supply various services to accompany these infrastructure components (e.g., billing, monitoring, logging, security, load balancing, and clustering, etc.). Therefore, since these services may be policy-driven, IaaS users may be able to implement policies to drive load balancing to maintain the availability and performance of applications.

[0241] In some cases, IaaS customers can access resources and services over a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet, and can use the cloud provider's services to install the remaining elements of the application stack. For example, a user can log in to the IaaS platform to create a virtual machine (VM), install an operating system (OS) on each VM, deploy middleware such as a database, create storage buckets for workloads and backups, and even install enterprise software into that VM. The customer can then use the provider's services to perform a variety of functions, including balancing network traffic, troubleshooting application problems, monitoring performance, managing disaster recovery, and more.

[0242] In most cases, the cloud computing model will require the involvement of a cloud provider. A cloud provider may, but need not, specialize in providing (e.g., provisioning, renting, selling) third-party IaaS services. An entity may also choose to deploy a private cloud, thereby becoming its own infrastructure service provider.

[0243] In some examples, IaaS deployment is the process of placing a new application or a new version of an application onto a prepared application server, etc. It may also include the process of preparing the server (e.g., installing libraries, daemons, etc.). This is typically managed by the cloud provider, below the hypervisor layer (e.g., servers, storage, network hardware, and virtualization). Thus, the customer may be responsible for handling (OS), middleware, and / or application deployment (e.g., on a self-service virtual machine (e.g., that can be started on demand), etc.).

[0244] In some examples, IaaS provisioning can refer to obtaining computers or virtual hosts for use, and even installing required libraries or services on them. In most cases, deployment does not include provisioning, and provisioning may need to be performed first.

[0245] In some cases, there are two different challenges with IaaS provisioning. First, there is the initial challenge of provisioning an initial set of infrastructure before anything is running. Second, once everything has been provisioned, there is the challenge of evolving the existing infrastructure (e.g., adding new services, changing services, removing services, etc.). In some cases, both of these challenges can be addressed by enabling configuration that defines the infrastructure in a declarative manner. In other words, the infrastructure (e.g., which components are required and how they interact) can be defined by one or more configuration files. Therefore, the overall topology of the infrastructure (e.g., which resources depend on which resources, and how they work together) can be described in a declarative manner. In some cases, once the topology is defined, workflows can be generated to create and / or manage the different components described in the configuration files.

[0246] In some examples, the infrastructure may have many interconnected elements. For example, there may be one or more virtual private clouds (VPCs) (e.g., a potential on-demand pool of configurable and / or shared computing resources), also referred to as a core network. In some examples, one or more security group rules may also be provided to define how to set up security for the network and one or more virtual machines (VMs). Other infrastructure elements may also be provided, such as load balancers, databases, etc. The infrastructure may evolve gradually as more and more infrastructure elements are desired and / or added.

[0247] In some cases, continuous deployment techniques can be employed to enable deployment of infrastructure code across various virtual computing environments. In addition, the described techniques can enable infrastructure management within these environments. In some examples, a service team can write code that is expected to be deployed to one or more but typically many different production environments (e.g., across various different geographic locations, sometimes across the world). However, in some examples, the infrastructure on which the code will be deployed must first be set up. In some cases, provisioning can be done manually, resources can be provisioned using a provisioning tool, and / or code can be deployed using a deployment tool once the infrastructure is provisioned.

[0248] Fig.12 1 is a block diagram 1200 illustrating an example schema of an IaaS architecture according to at least one embodiment. A service operator 1202 can be communicatively coupled to a secure host lease 1204 that can include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 1206 and a secure host subnet 1208. In some examples, the service operator 1202 can use one or more client computing devices, which can be portable handheld devices (e.g., Cellular phone, computing tablets, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or wearable devices (e.g., Google head mounted display), running software (such as Microsoft Windows ) and / or various mobile operating systems (such as iOS, Windows Phone, Android, BlackBerry 8, Palm OS, etc.), and supports Internet, email, short message service (SMS), or other communication protocols. Alternatively, the client computing device may be a general-purpose personal computer, including, for example, a computer running various versions of Microsoft Apple The client computing device may be a personal computer and / or laptop computer running various commercially available or UNIX-like operating systems, including but not limited to any of the various GNU / Linux operating systems (such as, for example, Google Chrome OS). Alternatively or additionally, the client computing device may be any other electronic device, such as a thin client computer, an Internet-enabled gaming system (e.g., with or without gestural input device), and / or a personal messaging device capable of communicating over a network that can access VCN 1206 and / or the Internet.

[0249] VCN 1206 may include a local peer gateway (LPG) 1210, which may be communicatively coupled to a secure shell (SSH) VCN 1212 via LPG 1210 contained in SSH VCN 1212. SSH VCN 1212 may include an SSH subnet 1214, and SSH VCN 1212 may be communicatively coupled to a control plane VCN 1216 via LPG 1210 contained in control plane VCN 1216. Furthermore, SSH VCN 1212 may be communicatively coupled to a data plane VCN 1218 via LPG 1210. Control plane VCN 1216 and data plane VCN 1218 may be contained in a service lease 1219, which may be owned and / or operated by an IaaS provider.

[0250] The control plane VCN 1216 may include a control plane demilitarized zone (DMZ) layer 1220 that acts as a perimeter network (e.g., a portion of a corporate network between a corporate intranet and an external network). DMZ-based servers may have limited liability and help control security vulnerabilities. In addition, the DMZ layer 1220 may include one or more load balancer (LB) subnets 1222, a control plane application layer 1224 that may include (one or more) application subnets 1226, and a control plane data layer 1228 that may include (one or more) database (DB) subnets 1230 (e.g., (one or more) front-end DB subnets and / or (one or more) back-end DB subnets). The LB subnet(s) 1222 included in the control plane DMZ layer 1220 may be communicatively coupled to the application subnet(s) 1226 included in the control plane application layer 1224 and the Internet gateway 1234 that may be included in the control plane VCN 1216, and the application subnet(s) 1226 may be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1230 included in the control plane data layer 1228 and the service gateway 1236 and the network address translation (NAT) gateway 1238. The control plane VCN 1216 may include the service gateway 1236 and the NAT gateway 1238.

[0251] The control plane VCN 1216 may include a data plane mirror application layer 1240, which may include application subnet(s) 1226. The application subnet(s) 1226 included in the data plane mirror application layer 1240 may include a virtual network interface controller (VNIC) 1242 that may execute a compute instance 1244. The compute instance 1244 may communicatively couple the application subnet(s) 1226 of the data plane mirror application layer 1240 to the application subnet(s) 1226 that may be included in the data plane application layer 1246.

[0252] The data plane VCN 1218 may include a data plane application layer 1246, a data plane DMZ layer 1248, and a data plane data layer 1250. The data plane DMZ layer 1248 may include (one or more) LB subnets 1222, which may be communicatively coupled to (one or more) application subnets 1226 of the data plane application layer 1246 and an internet gateway 1234 of the data plane VCN 1218. The (one or more) application subnets 1226 may be communicatively coupled to a service gateway 1236 of the data plane VCN 1218 and a NAT gateway 1238 of the data plane VCN 1218. The data plane data layer 1250 may also include (one or more) DB subnets 1230, which may be communicatively coupled to (one or more) application subnets 1226 of the data plane application layer 1246.

[0253] The internet gateway 1234 of the control plane VCN 1216 and the data plane VCN 1218 may be communicatively coupled to the metadata management service 1252, which may be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 1254. The public Internet 1254 may be communicatively coupled to the NAT gateway 1238 of the control plane VCN 1216 and the data plane VCN 1218. The service gateway 1236 of the control plane VCN 1216 and the data plane VCN 1218 may be communicatively coupled to the cloud service 1256.

[0254] In some examples, service gateway 1236 of control plane VCN 1216 or data plane VCN 1218 can make application programming interface (API) calls to cloud services 1256 without going through public internet 1254. API calls from service gateway 1236 to cloud services 1256 can be one-way: service gateway 1236 can make API calls to cloud services 1256, and cloud services 1256 can send requested data to service gateway 1236. However, cloud services 1256 may not initiate API calls to service gateway 1236.

[0255] In some examples, secure host lease 1204 can be directly connected to service lease 1219, which can otherwise be isolated. Secure host subnet 1208 can communicate with SSH subnet 1214 through LPG 1210, which can enable two-way communication on otherwise isolated systems. Connecting secure host subnet 1208 to SSH subnet 1214 can enable secure host subnet 1208 to access other entities within service lease 1219.

[0256] The control plane VCN 1216 may allow a user of the service lease 1219 to set up or otherwise provision desired resources. The desired resources provisioned in the control plane VCN 1216 may be deployed or otherwise used in the data plane VCN 1218. In some examples, the control plane VCN 1216 may be isolated from the data plane VCN 1218, and the data plane mirror application layer 1240 of the control plane VCN 1216 may communicate with the data plane application layer 1246 of the data plane VCN 1218 via the VNIC 1242, which may be included in the data plane mirror application layer 1240 and the data plane application layer 1246.

[0257] In some examples, a user or customer of the system may make a request, such as a create, read, update, or delete (CRUD) operation, through the public internet 1254 which may transmit the request to the metadata management service 1252. The metadata management service 1252 may transmit the request to the control plane VCN 1216 through the internet gateway 1234. The request may be received by the LB subnet(s) 1222 contained in the control plane DMZ layer 1220. The LB subnet(s) 1222 may determine that the request is valid, and in response to the determination, the LB subnet(s) 1222 may transmit the request to the application subnet(s) 1226 contained in the control plane application layer 1224. If the request is validated and a call to the public internet 1254 is required, the call to the public internet 1254 may be transmitted to the NAT gateway 1238 which may make the call to the public internet 1254. The storage that the request may desire to be stored may be stored in the DB subnet(s) 1230.

[0258] In some examples, data plane mirror application layer 1240 may facilitate direct communication between control plane VCN 1216 and data plane VCN 1218. For example, it may be desirable to apply changes, updates, or other appropriate modifications to the configuration to the resources contained in data plane VCN 1218. Control plane VCN 1216 may communicate directly with the resources contained in data plane VCN 1218 via VNIC 1242 and may thereby perform changes, updates, or other appropriate modifications to the configuration.

[0259] In some embodiments, control plane VCN 1216 and data plane VCN 1218 may be included in service lease 1219. In this case, a user or customer of the system may not own or operate control plane VCN 1216 or data plane VCN 1218. Alternatively, an IaaS provider may own or operate control plane VCN 1216 and data plane VCN 1218, both of which may be included in service lease 1219. This embodiment may enable isolation of networks that may prevent a user or customer from interacting with the resources of other users or other customers. In addition, this embodiment may allow a user or customer of the system to store databases privately without relying on the public Internet 1254 for storage, which may not have the desired level of threat prevention.

[0260] In other embodiments, the LB subnet(s) 1222 contained in the control plane VCN 1216 can be configured to receive signals from the service gateway 1236. In this embodiment, the control plane VCN 1216 and the data plane VCN 1218 can be configured to be called by customers of the IaaS provider without calling the public Internet 1254. Customers of the IaaS provider may desire this embodiment because the database(s) used by the customer can be controlled by the IaaS provider and can be stored on the service lease 1219, which can be isolated from the public Internet 1254.

[0261] Fig.13 13 is a block diagram 1300 illustrating another example model of an IaaS architecture according to at least one embodiment. A service operator 1302 (e.g., Fig.12 The service operator 1202 of the embodiment may be communicatively coupled to the secure host lease 1304 (e.g., Fig.12 The secure host lease 1204 may include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 1306 (e.g., Fig.12 VCN 1206) and secure host subnet 1308 (e.g., Fig.12 The VCN 1306 may include a local peer gateway (LPG) 1310 (e.g., Fig.12 1210), which may be communicatively coupled to a secure shell (SSH) VCN 1312 via an LPG 1310 contained in an SSH VCN 1312 (e.g., Fig.12 SSH VCN 1312). SSH VCN 1312 may include SSH subnet 1314 (e.g., Fig.12 SSH subnet 1214 of the control plane VCN 1316), and SSH VCN 1312 can be communicatively coupled to control plane VCN 1316 via LPG 1310 contained in control plane VCN 1316 (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane VCN 1216). The control plane VCN 1316 may be included in the service lease 1319 (e.g., Fig.12 service lease 1219), and the data plane VCN 1318 (e.g., Fig.12 The data plane VCN 1218) may be contained in a customer lease 1321 which may be owned or operated by a user or customer of the system.

[0262] The control plane VCN 1316 may include a LB subnet 1322 (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane DMZ layer 1320 (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane DMZ layer 1220 may include (one or more) application subnets 1326 (e.g., Fig.12 (one or more) application subnets 1226) of the control plane application layer 1324 (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane application layer 1224 of FIG. 1224 may include (one or more) database (DB) subnets 1330 (e.g., similar to Fig.12 (one or more) DB subnets 1230) of the control plane data layer 1328 (e.g., Fig.12 1328). The LB subnet(s) 1322 contained in the control plane DMZ layer 1320 may be communicatively coupled to the application subnet(s) 1326 contained in the control plane application layer 1324 and the internet gateway 1334 (e.g., Fig.12 1234), and the application subnet(s) 1326 may be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1330 and the service gateway 1336 (e.g., Fig.12 Serving gateway) and network address translation (NAT) gateway 1338 (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane VCN 1316 may include a service gateway 1336 and a NAT gateway 1338.

[0263] The control plane VCN 1316 may include a data plane mirror application layer 1340 (e.g., Fig.12 The data plane image application layer 1240). The (one or more) application subnets 1326 included in the data plane image application layer 1340 may include a computing instance 1344 (e.g., similar to Fig.12 The compute instance 1344 can facilitate the application subnet(s) 1326 of the data plane mirroring application layer 1340 and can include the application subnets 1326 of the data plane mirroring application layer 1346 (e.g., Fig.12 Communication between (one or more) application subnets 1326 in the data plane application layer 1246) via the VNIC 1342 contained in the data plane mirror application layer 1340 and the VNIC 1342 contained in the data plane application layer 1346.

[0264] The Internet gateway 1334 included in the control plane VCN 1316 can be communicatively coupled to the metadata management service 1352 (e.g., Fig.12 1352), which can be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 1354 (e.g., Fig.12 The public Internet 1354 can be communicatively coupled to a NAT gateway 1338 included in the control plane VCN 1316. The service gateway 1336 included in the control plane VCN 1316 can be communicatively coupled to cloud services 1356 (e.g., Fig.12 Cloud service 1256).

[0265] In some examples, the data plane VCN 1318 may be contained in a customer lease 1321. In this case, the IaaS provider may provide a control plane VCN 1316 for each customer, and the IaaS provider may provision each customer with a unique compute instance 1344 contained in a service lease 1319. Each compute instance 1344 may allow communication between a control plane VCN 1316 contained in a service lease 1319 and a data plane VCN 1318 contained in a customer lease 1321. The compute instance 1344 may allow resources provisioned in a control plane VCN 1316 contained in a service lease 1319 to be deployed or otherwise used in a data plane VCN 1318 contained in a customer lease 1321.

[0266] In other examples, a customer of the IaaS provider may have a database that exists in the customer tenancy 1321. In this example, the control plane VCN 1316 may include a data plane mirror application layer 1340, which may include (one or more) application subnets 1326. The data plane mirror application layer 1340 may reside in the data plane VCN 1318, but the data plane mirror application layer 1340 may not be in the data plane VCN 1318. That is, the data plane mirror application layer 1340 may access the customer tenancy 1321, but the data plane mirror application layer 1340 may not exist in the data plane VCN 1318 or be owned or operated by the customer of the IaaS provider. The data plane mirror application layer 1340 may be configured to make calls to the data plane VCN 1318, but may not be configured to make calls to any entity contained in the control plane VCN 1316. A customer may desire to deploy or otherwise use resources provisioned in control plane VCN 1316 in data plane VCN 1318, and data plane mirror application layer 1340 may facilitate the customer's desired deployment or other use of resources.

[0267] In some embodiments, a customer of an IaaS provider may apply filters to the data plane VCN 1318. In this embodiment, the customer may determine what the data plane VCN 1318 may access, and the customer may restrict access to the public Internet 1354 from the data plane VCN 1318. The IaaS provider may not apply filters or otherwise control access to any external network or database by the data plane VCN 1318. The customer applying filters and controls to the data plane VCN 1318 contained in the customer lease 1321 may help isolate the data plane VCN 1318 from other customers and the public Internet 1354.

[0268] In some embodiments, cloud services 1356 may be called by service gateway 1336 to access services that may not exist on public Internet 1354, control plane VCN 1316, or data plane VCN 1318. The connection between cloud services 1356 and control plane VCN 1316 or data plane VCN 1318 may not be real-time or continuous. Cloud services 1356 may exist on different networks owned or operated by IaaS providers. Cloud services 1356 may be configured to receive calls from service gateway 1336 and may be configured not to receive calls from public Internet 1354. Some cloud services 1356 may be isolated from other cloud services 1356, and control plane VCN 1316 may be isolated from cloud services 1356 that may not be in the same region as control plane VCN 1316. For example, control plane VCN 1316 may be located in "region 1", and cloud service "deployment 12" may be located in region 1 and "region 2". If a service gateway 1336 contained in a control plane VCN 1316 located in region 1 makes a call to a deployment 12, the call may be transmitted to the deployment 12 in region 1. In this example, the control plane VCN 1316 or deployment 12 in region 1 may not be communicatively coupled or otherwise in communication with the deployment 12 in region 2.

[0269] Fig.14 1400 is a block diagram illustrating another example model of an IaaS architecture according to at least one embodiment. A service operator 1402 (e.g., Fig.12 The service operator 1202 may be communicatively coupled to the secure host lease 1404 (e.g., Fig.12 The secure host lease 1204 may include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 1406 (e.g., Fig.12 VCN 1206) and secure host subnet 1408 (e.g., Fig.12 VCN 1406 may include LPG 1410 (e.g., Fig.12 1210), which may be communicatively coupled to the SSH VCN 1412 via the LPG 1410 contained in the SSH VCN 1412 (e.g., Fig.12 SSH VCN 1412 may include SSH subnet 1414 (e.g., Fig.12 SSH subnet 1214 of the control plane VCN 1416), and SSH VCN 1412 can be communicatively coupled to control plane VCN 1416 via LPG 1410 contained in control plane VCN 1416 (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane VCN 1216 of FIG. 1414 is coupled to the data plane VCN 1418 via the LPG 1410 included in the data plane VCN 1418 (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane VCN 1416 and the data plane VCN 1418 may be included in a service lease 1419 (e.g., Fig.12 Service lease 1219).

[0270] The control plane VCN 1416 may include a subnet 1422 that may include (one or more) load balancers (LBs) (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane DMZ layer 1420 (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane DMZ layer 1220 may include (one or more) application subnets 1426 (e.g., similar to Fig.12 (one or more) application subnets 1226) of the control plane application layer 1424 (e.g., Fig.12 A control plane application layer 1224), a control plane data layer 1428 (eg, Fig.12 1428). The LB subnet(s) 1422 contained in the control plane DMZ layer 1420 may be communicatively coupled to the application subnet(s) 1426 contained in the control plane application layer 1424 and the internet gateway 1434 (e.g., Fig.12 1434), and the application subnet(s) 1426 may be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1430 and the service gateway 1436 (e.g., Fig.12 ) and a network address translation (NAT) gateway 1438 (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane VCN 1416 may include a service gateway 1436 and a NAT gateway 1438.

[0271] The data plane VCN 1418 may include a data plane application layer 1446 (e.g., Fig.12 Data plane application layer 1246), data plane DMZ layer 1448 (e.g., Fig.12 Data plane DMZ layer 1248), and data plane data layer 1450 (e.g., Fig.12 The data plane DMZ layer 1448 may include (one or more) trusted application subnets 1460 and (one or more) untrusted application subnets 1462 that may be communicatively coupled to the data plane application layer 1446 and (one or more) LB subnets 1422 of the Internet gateway 1434 included in the data plane VCN 1418. The (one or more) trusted application subnets 1460 may be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 1436 included in the data plane VCN 1418, the NAT gateway 1438 included in the data plane VCN 1418, and (one or more) DB subnets 1430 included in the data plane data layer 1450. The (one or more) untrusted application subnets 1462 may be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 1436 included in the data plane VCN 1418 and (one or more) DB subnets 1430 included in the data plane data layer 1450. Data plane data layer 1450 may include DB subnet(s) 1430 that may be communicatively coupled to a service gateway 1436 included in data plane VCN 1418 .

[0272] Untrusted application subnet(s) 1462 may include one or more primary VNICs 1464(1)-(N) that may be communicatively coupled to tenant virtual machines (VMs) 1466(1)-(N). Each tenant VM 1466(1)-(N) may be communicatively coupled to a respective application subnet 1467(1)-(N) that may be contained in a respective container egress VCN 1468(1)-(N), which may be contained in a respective customer tenancy 1470(1)-(N). Respective secondary VNICs 1472(1)-(N) may facilitate communications between untrusted application subnet(s) 1462 contained in data plane VCN 1418 and application subnets contained in container egress VCNs 1468(1)-(N). Each container egress VCN 1468(1)-(N) may include a NAT gateway 1438 that may be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 1454 (e.g., Fig.12 of the public Internet 1254).

[0273] An internet gateway 1434 included in control plane VCN 1416 and included in data plane VCN 1418 may be communicatively coupled to a metadata management service 1452 (e.g., Fig.12 1452), which can be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 1454. The public Internet 1454 can be communicatively coupled to the NAT gateway 1438 contained in the control plane VCN 1416 and contained in the data plane VCN 1418. The service gateway 1436 contained in the control plane VCN 1416 and contained in the data plane VCN 1418 can be communicatively coupled to the cloud service 1456.

[0274] In some embodiments, data plane VCN 1418 may be integrated with customer lease 1470. In some cases, such integration may be useful or desirable for customers of the IaaS provider, such as where support may be desired when executing code. A customer may provide code to run that may be destructive, may communicate with other customer resources, or may otherwise cause undesirable effects. In response to this, the IaaS provider may determine whether to run code given to the IaaS provider by the customer.

[0275] In some examples, a customer of an IaaS provider may grant temporary network access to the IaaS provider and request functionality attached to a data plane layer application 1446. Code running the functionality may be executed in a VM 1466(1)-(N), and the code may not be configured to run anywhere else on the data plane VCN 1418. Each VM 1466(1)-(N) may be connected to a customer tenancy 1470. The corresponding container 1471(1)-(N) contained in the VM 1466(1)-(N) may be configured to run the code. In this case, there may be double isolation (e.g., the container 1471(1)-(N) runs the code, where the container 1471(1)-(N) may be contained at least in a VM 1466(1)-(N) contained in (one or more) untrusted application subnets 1462), which may help prevent incorrect or otherwise undesirable code from damaging the IaaS provider's network or damaging the network of a different customer. Containers 1471(1)-(N) may be communicatively coupled to customer lease 1470 and may be configured to transmit or receive data from customer lease 1470. Containers 1471(1)-(N) may not be configured to transmit or receive data from any other entity in data plane VCN 1418. After running the code, the IaaS provider may terminate or otherwise dispose of containers 1471(1)-(N).

[0276] In some embodiments, the trusted application subnet(s) 1460 may run code that may be owned or operated by the IaaS provider. In this embodiment, the trusted application subnet(s) 1460 may be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1430 and configured to perform CRUD operations in the DB subnet(s) 1430. The untrusted application subnet(s) 1462 may be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1430, but in this embodiment, the untrusted application subnet(s) may be configured to perform read operations in the DB subnet(s) 1430. The containers 1471(1)-(N) that may be included in each customer's VM 1466(1)-(N) and that may run code from the customer may not be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1430.

[0277] In other embodiments, the control plane VCN 1416 and the data plane VCN 1418 may not be directly communicatively coupled. In this embodiment, there may be no direct communication between the control plane VCN 1416 and the data plane VCN 1418. However, communication may occur indirectly through at least one method. The LPG 1410 may be established by an IaaS provider, which may facilitate communication between the control plane VCN 1416 and the data plane VCN 1418. In another example, the control plane VCN 1416 or the data plane VCN 1418 may call the cloud service 1456 via the service gateway 1436. For example, the call from the control plane VCN 1416 to the cloud service 1456 may include a request for a service that can communicate with the data plane VCN 1418.

[0278] Fig.15 1500 is a block diagram illustrating another example model of an IaaS architecture according to at least one embodiment. A service operator 1502 (e.g., Fig.12 The service operator 1202 of the embodiment may be communicatively coupled to the secure host lease 1504 (e.g., Fig.12 The secure host lease 1204 may include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 1506 (e.g., Fig.12 VCN 1206) and secure host subnet 1508 (e.g., Fig.12 VCN 1506 may include LPG 1510 (e.g., Fig.12 1210), which may be accessed via an LPG 1510 contained in an SSH VCN 1512 (e.g., Fig.12 LPG 1510 in SSH VCN 1512 of the present invention is communicatively coupled to SSH VCN 1512. SSH VCN 1512 may include SSH subnet 1514 (e.g., Fig.12 SSH subnet 1214 of the control plane VCN 1514), and SSH VCN 1512 can be communicatively coupled to control plane VCN 1516 via LPG 1510 contained in control plane VCN 1516 (e.g., Fig.12 1516) and is coupled to the data plane VCN 1518 via the LPG 1510 included in the data plane VCN 1518 (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane VCN 1516 and the data plane VCN 1518 may be included in a service lease 1519 (e.g., Fig.12 Service lease 1219).

[0279] The control plane VCN 1516 may include a LB subnet 1522 (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane DMZ layer 1520 (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane DMZ layer 1220 may include (one or more) application subnets 1526 (e.g., Fig.12 (one or more) application subnets 1226) of the control plane application layer 1524 (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane application layer 1224 of FIG. 1224 may include (one or more) DB subnets 1530 (e.g., Fig.14 (one or more) DB subnets 1430) of the control plane data layer 1528 (e.g., Fig.12 1528). The LB subnet(s) 1522 contained in the control plane DMZ layer 1520 may be communicatively coupled to the application subnet(s) 1526 contained in the control plane application layer 1524 and the internet gateway 1534 (e.g., Fig.12 1234), and the application subnet(s) 1526 may be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1530 and the service gateway 1536 (e.g., Fig.12 ) and a network address translation (NAT) gateway 1538 (e.g., Fig.12 The control plane VCN 1516 may include a service gateway 1536 and a NAT gateway 1538.

[0280] The data plane VCN 1518 may include a data plane application layer 1546 (e.g., Fig.12 Data plane application layer 1246), data plane DMZ layer 1548 (e.g., Fig.12 Data plane DMZ layer 1248)), and data plane data layer 1550 (e.g., Fig.12 The data plane DMZ layer 1548 may include (one or more) trusted application subnets 1560 (e.g., Fig.14 (one or more) trusted application subnets 1460) and (one or more) untrusted application subnets 1562 (e.g., Fig.14 The trusted application subnet(s) 1560 may be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 1536 contained in the data plane VCN 1518, the NAT gateway 1538 contained in the data plane VCN 1518, and the DB subnet(s) 1530 contained in the data plane data layer 1550. The untrusted application subnet(s) 1562 may be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 1536 contained in the data plane VCN 1518 and the DB subnet(s) 1530 contained in the data plane data layer 1550. The data plane data layer 1550 may include the DB subnet(s) 1530 that may be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 1536 contained in the data plane VCN 1518.

[0281] The untrusted application subnet(s) 1562 may include primary VNICs 1564(1)-(N) that may be communicatively coupled to tenant virtual machines (VMs) 1566(1)-(N) residing within the untrusted application subnet(s) 1562. Each tenant VM 1566(1)-(N) may run code in a corresponding container 1567(1)-(N) and may be communicatively coupled to an application subnet 1526 that may be contained in a data plane application layer 1546 contained in a container egress VCN 1568. Corresponding secondary VNICs 1572(1)-(N) may facilitate communications between the untrusted application subnet(s) 1562 contained in the data plane VCN 1518 and the application subnets contained in the container egress VCN 1568. The container egress VCN may include a primary VNIC that may be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 1554 (e.g., Fig.12 NAT gateway 1538 of the public Internet 1254).

[0282] The Internet gateway 1534 included in the control plane VCN 1516 and included in the data plane VCN 1518 can be communicatively coupled to the metadata management service 1552 (e.g., Fig.12 15), which can be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 1554. The public Internet 1554 can be communicatively coupled to the NAT gateway 1538 contained in the control plane VCN 1516 and contained in the data plane VCN 1518. The service gateway 1536 contained in the control plane VCN 1516 and contained in the data plane VCN 1518 can be communicatively coupled to the cloud service 1556.

[0283] In some examples, Fig.15 The architecture model shown in block diagram 1500 can be considered as Fig.14 1400 , and may be desired by customers of the IaaS provider if the IaaS provider cannot communicate directly with the customer (e.g., a disconnected region). The customer may access the corresponding container 1567(1)-(N) contained in each customer's VM 1566(1)-(N) in real time. The container 1567(1)-(N) may be configured to make calls to the corresponding secondary VNIC 1572(1)-(N) contained in the (one or more) application subnets 1526 of the data plane application layer 1546, which may be contained in the container egress VCN 1568. The secondary VNIC 1572(1)-(N) may transmit the call to the NAT gateway 1538, which may transmit the call to the public Internet 1554. In this example, containers 1567(1)-(N), which may be accessed by customers in real time, may be isolated from control plane VCN 1516 and may be isolated from other entities contained in data plane VCN 1518. Containers 1567(1)-(N) may also be isolated from resources from other customers.

[0284] In other examples, a customer may use containers 1567(1)-(N) to call cloud service 1556. In this example, a customer may run code in containers 1567(1)-(N) to request a service from cloud service 1556. Containers 1567(1)-(N) may transmit the request to secondary VNICs 1572(1)-(N), which may transmit the request to a NAT gateway, which may transmit the request to public Internet 1554. Public Internet 1554 may transmit the request to LB subnet(s) 1522 contained in control plane VCN 1516 via Internet gateway 1534. In response to determining that the request is valid, LB subnet(s) may transmit the request to application subnet(s) 1526, which may transmit the request to cloud service 1556 via service gateway 1536.

[0285] It should be appreciated that the IaaS architectures 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500 depicted in the various figures may have other components in addition to those depicted. In addition, the embodiments shown in the various figures are merely some examples of cloud infrastructure systems that may be combined with embodiments of the present disclosure. In some other embodiments, the IaaS system may have more or fewer components than shown in the various figures, may combine two or more components, or may have a different configuration or arrangement of components.

[0286] In certain embodiments, the IaaS system described herein may include application suites, middleware, and database service offerings delivered to customers in a self-service, subscription-based, elastically scalable, reliable, highly available, and secure manner. An example of such an IaaS system is Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) provided by the assignee.

[0287] Fig.16 An example computer system 1600 is illustrated in which various embodiments may be implemented. System 1600 may be used to implement any of the computer systems described above. As shown, computer system 1600 includes a processing unit 1604 that communicates with a plurality of peripheral subsystems via a bus subsystem 1602. These peripheral subsystems may include a processing acceleration unit 1606, an I / O subsystem 1608, a storage subsystem 1618, and a communication subsystem 1624. Storage subsystem 1618 includes a tangible computer-readable storage medium 1622 and a system memory 1610.

[0288] The bus subsystem 1602 provides a mechanism for allowing the various components and subsystems of the computer system 1600 to communicate with each other by intention. Although the bus subsystem 1602 is schematically shown as a single bus, an alternative embodiment of the bus subsystem can utilize multiple buses. The bus subsystem 1602 can be any of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or a memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any various bus architectures. For example, this architecture can include an industrial standard architecture (ISA) bus, a microchannel architecture (MCA) bus, an enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, a video electronics standard association (VESA) local bus, and a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus, which can be implemented as a Mezzanine bus manufactured by the IEEE P1386.1 standard.

[0289] The processing unit 1604, which may be implemented as one or more integrated circuits (e.g., conventional microprocessors or microcontrollers), controls the operation of the computer system 1600. One or more processors may be included in the processing unit 1604. These processors may include single-core or multi-core processors. In some embodiments, the processing unit 1604 may be implemented as one or more independent processing units 1632 and / or 1634, wherein a single-core or multi-core processor is included in each processing unit. In other embodiments, the processing unit 1604 may also be implemented as a quad-core processing unit formed by integrating two dual-core processors into a single chip.

[0290] In various embodiments, the processing unit 1604 can execute various programs in response to the program code and can maintain multiple concurrently executed programs or processes. At any given time, some or all of the program code to be executed may reside in (one or more) processors 1604 and / or in the storage subsystem 1618. Through appropriate programming, (one or more) processors 1604 can provide the various functions described above. The computer system 1600 may additionally include a processing acceleration unit 1606, which may include a digital signal processor (DSP), a special processor, and the like.

[0291] I / O subsystem 1608 may include user interface input devices and user interface output devices. User interface input devices may include a keyboard, a pointing device such as a mouse or trackball, a touch pad or touch screen incorporated into a display, a scroll wheel, a click wheel, a dial, buttons, switches, a keypad, an audio input device with a voice command recognition system, a microphone, and other types of input devices. User interface input devices may include, for example, motion sensing and / or gesture recognition devices such as Microsoft Motion sensors that enable users to control apps such as Microsoft 360 game controller. The user interface input device may also include an eye gesture recognition device, such as detecting eye activity from the user (e.g., a "wink" when taking a picture and / or making a menu selection) and translating the eye gesture to the input device (e.g., Google ) in Google In addition, the user interface input device may include a user interface that enables the user to communicate with the voice recognition system (e.g., Navigator) interactive voice recognition sensing device.

[0292] The user interface input device may also include, but is not limited to, a three-dimensional (3D) mouse, a joystick or pointing stick, a game panel and a drawing board, and audio / video equipment such as a speaker, a digital camera, a digital video camera, a portable media player, a webcam, an image scanner, a fingerprint scanner, a barcode reader 3D scanner, a 3D printer, a laser rangefinder, and a sight tracking device. In addition, the user interface input device may include, for example, a medical imaging input device such as a computer tomography, a magnetic resonance imaging, a positron emission tomography, a medical ultrasound device. The user interface input device may also include, for example, an audio input device such as a MIDI keyboard, a digital musical instrument, etc.

[0293] The user interface output devices may include a display subsystem, indicator lights, or non-visual displays such as audio output devices, etc. The display subsystem may be a cathode ray tube (CRT), a flat panel device such as using a liquid crystal display (LCD) or plasma display, a projection device, a touch screen, etc. In general, the use of the term "output device" is intended to include all possible types of devices and mechanisms for outputting information from the computer system 1600 to a user or other computers. For example, the user interface output devices may include, but are not limited to, various display devices that visually convey text, graphics, and audio / video information, such as monitors, printers, speakers, headphones, car navigation systems, plotters, voice output devices, and modems.

[0294] Computer system 1600 may include a storage subsystem 1618 containing software elements, shown currently located in system memory 1610. System memory 1610 may store program instructions that may be loaded and executed on processing unit 1604, as well as data generated during execution of these programs.

[0295] Depending on the configuration and type of computer system 1600, system memory 1610 may be volatile (such as random access memory (RAM)) and / or non-volatile (such as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, etc.). RAM typically contains data and / or program modules that are immediately accessible to and / or currently being operated and executed by processing unit 1604. In some implementations, system memory 1610 may include a variety of different types of memory, such as static random access memory (SRAM) or dynamic random access memory (DRAM). In some implementations, a basic input / output system (BIOS), such as one containing basic routines that help transfer information between elements of computer system 1600 during startup, may typically be stored in ROM. By way of example, and not limitation, system memory 1610 also illustrates application programs 1612, which may include client applications, web browsers, middle-tier applications, relational database management systems (RDBMS), etc., program data 1614, and an operating system 1616. By way of example, operating system 1616 may include various versions of Microsoft Apple and / or Linux operating systems, various commercially available or UNIX-like operating systems (including but not limited to various GNU / Linux operating systems, Google OS, etc.) and / or such as iOS, Phone, OS, 16OS and OS operating system's mobile operating system.

[0296] Storage subsystem 1618 may also provide a tangible computer-readable storage medium for storing basic programming and data structures that provide the functionality of some embodiments. Software (programs, code modules, instructions) that provide the above-described functionality when executed by the processor may be stored in storage subsystem 1618. These software modules or instructions may be executed by processing unit 1604. Storage subsystem 1618 may also provide a repository for storing data used in accordance with the present disclosure.

[0297] Storage subsystem 1600 may also include a computer-readable storage media reader 1620, which may be further connected to computer-readable storage media 1622. Together with system memory 1610 and, optionally, in conjunction therewith, computer-readable storage media 1622 may comprehensively represent remote, local, fixed, and / or removable storage devices plus storage media for temporarily and / or more permanently containing, storing, transmitting, and retrieving computer-readable information.

[0298] The computer-readable storage medium 1622 containing the code or portions of the code may also include any suitable media known or used in the art, including storage media and communication media, such as, but not limited to, volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage and / or transmission of information. This may include tangible computer-readable storage media, such as RAM, ROM, electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD) or other optical storage, cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or other tangible computer-readable media. This may also include non-tangible computer-readable media, such as data signals, data transmissions, or any other medium that can be used to transmit the desired information and can be accessed by the computing system 1600.

[0299] By way of example, computer-readable storage media 1622 may include a hard drive that reads from or writes to non-removable nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive that reads from or writes to removable nonvolatile magnetic disks, and a magnetic disk drive that reads from or writes to removable nonvolatile optical disks (such as CD ROMs, DVDs, and optical drives). Computer readable storage media 1622 may include, but are not limited to, The computer readable storage medium 1622 may include a solid-state drive (SSD) based on non-volatile memory (such as a flash memory-based SSD, an enterprise flash drive, a solid-state ROM, etc.), a volatile memory-based SSD (such as a solid-state RAM, a dynamic RAM, a static RAM), a DRAM-based SSD, a magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) SSD, and a hybrid SSD using a combination of DRAM and flash memory-based SSDs. The disk drive and its associated computer-readable media may provide non-volatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, and other data for the computer system 1600.

[0300] The communication subsystem 1624 provides an interface to other computer systems and networks. The communication subsystem 1624 is used as an interface for receiving data from other systems and sending data from the computer system 1600 to other systems. For example, the communication subsystem 1624 can enable the computer system 1600 to be connected to one or more devices via the Internet. In some embodiments, the communication subsystem 1624 may include a radio frequency (RF) transceiver component for accessing a wireless voice and / or data network (e.g., using cellular phone technology, advanced data network technology such as 3G, 4G or EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution), Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 series standards), or other mobile communication technologies, or any combination thereof), a global positioning system (GPS) receiver component, and / or other components. In some embodiments, as an addition or alternative to a wireless interface, the communication subsystem 1624 may provide a wired network connection (e.g., Ethernet).

[0301] In some embodiments, communication subsystem 1624 may also receive incoming communications in the form of structured and / or unstructured data feeds 1626 , event streams 1628 , event updates 1630 , and the like on behalf of one or more users who may use computer system 1600 .

[0302] For example, the communication subsystem 1624 may be configured to receive data feeds 1626 in real time from users of social networks and / or other communication services, such as feed, Updates, web feeds such as Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, and / or real-time updates from one or more third-party information sources.

[0303] Additionally, the communication subsystem 1624 may also be configured to receive data in the form of continuous data streams, which may include event streams 1628 and / or event updates 1630, which may be continuous or unbounded in nature, real-time events without explicit termination. Examples of applications that generate continuous data may include, for example, sensor data applications, financial quote machines, network performance measurement tools (e.g., network monitoring and traffic management applications), clickstream analysis tools, automotive traffic monitoring, and the like.

[0304] The communication subsystem 1624 may also be configured to output structured and / or unstructured data feeds 1626 , event streams 1628 , event updates 1630 , etc. to one or more databases that may be in computer communication with one or more streaming data source computers coupled to the computer system 1600 .

[0305] Computer system 1600 may be one of various types, including a handheld portable device (e.g., Cellular phone, computing tablets, PDAs), wearable devices (e.g. Glass head mounted display), PC, workstation, mainframe, kiosk, server rack, or any other data processing system.

[0306] Due to the ever-changing nature of computers and networks, the description of the computer system 1600 depicted in the figure is intended only as a specific example. Many other configurations with more or fewer components than the system depicted in the figure are possible. For example, customized hardware may also be used and / or specific elements may be implemented with hardware, firmware, software (including applets), or a combination thereof. In addition, connections to other computing devices such as network input / output devices may also be employed. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize other ways and / or methods of implementing various embodiments.

[0307] Although specific embodiments have been described, various modifications, variations, alternative constructions, and equivalents are also included within the scope of this disclosure. Embodiments are not limited to operating within certain specific data processing environments, but can be freely operated within multiple data processing environments. In addition, although embodiments have been described using a specific series of transactions and steps, it should be clear to those skilled in the art that the scope of this disclosure is not limited to the described series of transactions and steps. The various features and aspects of the above-described embodiments may be used alone or in combination.

[0308] In addition, although embodiments have been described using specific combinations of hardware and software, it should be appreciated that other combinations of hardware and software are also within the scope of the present disclosure. Embodiments may be implemented using only hardware, or only software, or using a combination thereof. The various processes described herein may be implemented in any combination on the same processor or on different processors. Accordingly, where a component or module is described as being configured to perform certain operations, such configuration may be accomplished by, for example, designing an electronic circuit to perform the operation, by programming a programmable electronic circuit (such as a microprocessor) to perform the operation, or any combination thereof. Processes may communicate using a variety of techniques, including but not limited to conventional techniques for inter-process communication, and different pairs of processes may use different techniques, or the same pair of processes may use different techniques at different times.

[0309] Accordingly, the description and drawings are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. However, additions, subtractions, deletions and other modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope set forth in the claims. Therefore, although specific disclosed embodiments have been described, these are not intended to be limiting. Various modifications and equivalent forms are within the scope of the following claims.

[0310] The use of the terms "a" and "an" and "the" and similar references in the context of describing the disclosed embodiments (especially in the context of the following claims) is to be interpreted as covering the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by the context. Unless otherwise stated, the terms "include", "have", "include (including)" and "containing (containing)" are to be interpreted as open terms (i.e., meaning "including but not limited to"). The term "connected" should be interpreted as partially or completely contained in, attached to or connected together, even if there are something in between. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the enumeration of value ranges herein is intended only to be used as a shorthand method of individually referencing each individual value falling within the range, and each individual value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually listed herein. Unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by the context, all methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order. The use of any and all examples or exemplary language (e.g., "such as") provided herein is intended only to better illustrate the embodiments and does not limit the scope of the present disclosure unless otherwise stated. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the disclosure.

[0311] Disjunctive language, such as the phrase "at least one of X, Y, or Z," is intended to be understood in the context generally used to indicate that an item, term, or the like, can be X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof (e.g., X, Y, and / or Z), unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, such disjunctive language is generally not intended to, and should not, imply that certain embodiments require that at least one of X, at least one of Y, or at least one of Z each be present.

[0312] Preferred embodiments of the present disclosure are described herein, including the best mode known for implementing the present disclosure. Variations of those preferred embodiments will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the above description. Those of ordinary skill should be able to appropriately adopt such variations and may practice the present disclosure in a manner different from that specifically described herein. Accordingly, the present disclosure includes all modifications and equivalent forms of the subject matter recorded in the appended claims where permitted by applicable law. In addition, unless otherwise indicated herein, the present disclosure includes any combination of the above-mentioned elements in all possible variations thereof.

[0313] All references cited herein, including publications, patent applications and patents, are incorporated herein by reference to the same extent, as if each reference is individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and set forth in full herein. In the aforementioned specification, various aspects of the present disclosure are described with reference to their specific embodiments, but it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Each feature and aspect disclosed above can be used individually or in combination. In addition, without departing from the broader spirit and scope of this specification, embodiments can be used in any number of environments and applications other than those described herein. Accordingly, this specification and accompanying drawings should be considered illustrative rather than restrictive.< / realm>

Claims

1. A method, include: Receiving, by a multi-cloud infrastructure included in the first cloud environment, a request to create a network link between a second virtual network in the second cloud environment and a service endpoint corresponding to a service provided by the first cloud environment; as well as The multi-cloud infrastructure configures a network link between the second virtual network and the service endpoint, the configuration comprising: deploying a network load balancer associated with the service in a second cloud environment; instantiating a packet processor in a link-enabled virtual network in a first cloud environment; forwarding, by the network load balancer, traffic associated with the service received from the second virtual network to the packet processor; and Traffic received from the network load balancer is processed by a packet processor to generate processed traffic, and the processed traffic is forwarded by the packet processor to the service endpoint corresponding to the service in the first cloud environment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the multi-cloud infrastructure is provided by a first cloud service provider, the first cloud service provider being different from a second cloud service provider providing the second cloud environment. 3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the network load balancer is deployed in a service account associated with the multi-cloud infrastructure and in the second cloud environment.

4. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the configuration further comprises: include: An access endpoint is established for the service in the second virtual network, wherein traffic associated with the service is transmitted from the second virtual network to the network load balancer via the access endpoint.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising: include: A private link module is provided in the second cloud environment, the private link module being configured to receive traffic associated with the service from the access endpoint and forward the traffic to a network load balancer.

6. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the processing further include: A network address translation (NAT) operation is performed by the packet processor for each packet included in the traffic, the NAT operation comprising translating a destination IP address of the packet corresponding to the address of the packet processor into a public or private IP address of the service endpoint.

7. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the configuration further include: A first gateway and a second gateway are deployed in the second cloud environment, wherein the first gateway is directly connected to the second gateway via a connection link at a first end, and the first gateway is connected to a network load balancer at a second end.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second gateway in the second cloud environment is communicatively coupled to the link-enabled virtual network in the first cloud environment via a high-bandwidth interconnect.

9. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the processed traffic is forwarded by a packet processor to the service endpoint via a service gateway included in a link-enabled virtual network.

10. One or more computer-readable non-transitory media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause: Receiving, by a multi-cloud infrastructure included in a first cloud environment, a request to create a network link between a second virtual network in a second cloud environment and a service endpoint corresponding to a service provided by the first cloud environment ； as well as The multi-cloud infrastructure configures a network link between the second virtual network and the service endpoint, the configuration comprising: deploying a network load balancer associated with the service in a second cloud environment; instantiating a packet processor in a link-enabled virtual network in a first cloud environment; forwarding, by the network load balancer, traffic associated with the service received from the second virtual network to the packet processor; and Traffic received from the network load balancer is processed by a packet processor to generate processed traffic, and the processed traffic is forwarded by the packet processor to the service endpoint corresponding to the service in the first cloud environment.

11. One or more computer-readable non-transitory media storing computer-executable instructions as recited in claim 10, wherein the multi-cloud infrastructure is provided by a first cloud service provider that is different from a second cloud service provider that provides a second cloud environment.

12. One or more computer-readable non-transitory media storing computer-executable instructions as claimed in claim 10 or 11, wherein the network load balancer is deployed in a service account associated with the multi-cloud infrastructure and is deployed in the second cloud environment.

13. One or more computer-readable non-transitory media storing computer-executable instructions as claimed in claims 10 to 12, wherein the configuration further include: An access endpoint is established for the service in the second virtual network, wherein traffic associated with the service is transmitted from the second virtual network to the network load balancer via the access endpoint.

14. One or more computer-readable non-transitory media storing computer-executable instructions as claimed in claim 13, wherein the configuration further include: A private link module is provided in the second cloud environment, the private link module being configured to receive traffic associated with the service from the access endpoint and forward the traffic to a network load balancer.

15. One or more computer-readable non-transitory media storing computer-executable instructions as claimed in claims 10 to 14, wherein the processing of the packet processor further include: A network address translation (NAT) operation is performed by the packet processor for each packet included in the traffic, the NAT operation comprising translating a destination IP address of the packet corresponding to the address of the packet processor into a public or private IP address of the service endpoint.

16. One or more computer-readable non-transitory media storing computer-executable instructions as claimed in claims 10 to 15, wherein the configuration further include: A first gateway and a second gateway are deployed in the second cloud environment, wherein the first gateway is directly connected to the second gateway via a connection link at a first end, and the first gateway is connected to a network load balancer at a second end.

17. One or more computer-readable non-transitory media storing computer-executable instructions as recited in claim 16, wherein the second gateway in the second cloud environment is communicatively coupled to the link-enabled virtual network in the first cloud environment via a high bandwidth interconnect.

18. One or more computer-readable non-transitory media storing computer-executable instructions as described in claims 10 to 17, wherein the processed traffic is forwarded by a packet processor to the service endpoint via a service gateway included in a link-enabled virtual network.

19. A computing device, include: one or more processors; as well as a memory including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to at least: Receiving, by a multi-cloud infrastructure included in the first cloud environment, a request to create a network link between a second virtual network in the second cloud environment and a service endpoint corresponding to a service provided by the first cloud environment; as well as The multi-cloud infrastructure configures a network link between the second virtual network and the service endpoint, the configuration comprising: deploying a network load balancer associated with the service in a second cloud environment; instantiating a packet processor in a link-enabled virtual network in a first cloud environment; forwarding, by the network load balancer, traffic associated with the service received from the second virtual network to the packet processor; and Traffic received from the network load balancer is processed by a packet processor to generate processed traffic, and the processed traffic is forwarded by the packet processor to the service endpoint corresponding to the service in the first cloud environment.

20. The computing device of claim 19, wherein the multi-cloud infrastructure is provided by a first cloud service provider, the first cloud service provider being different from a second cloud service provider providing the second cloud environment.

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